The  Huntington  California  Expedition 

**'   *  .* 

Maidu  Myths. 

By  ROLAND   B.    DIXON. 


BULLETIN 

OF    THE 

American  plxxsextw  of  Hatxxral 

n  v 

VOL.  XVII,  PART  II,  pp.  33-118. 
New    York,  June  30,   1902. 


r. 


ZTbe  Unfcfeerbocher  press,  Hew 


II.  — MAIDU  MYTHS. 

By  ROLAND  B.  DIXON. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

THE  Maidu  Indians,  from  whom  the  myths  here  recorded 
were  obtained,  may  be  said,  for  the  present  at  least,  to  con 
stitute  an  independent  stock,  occupying  a  considerable  area 
in  the  northeastern  part  of  California.  On  the  north  the 
Maidu  territory  seems  to  have  been  bounded  by  a  line  running 
from  Lassen  Peak  to  Honey  Lake,  and  thence  south  to  the 
eastern  crest  of  the  Sierras.  On  the  east  this  crest  was  prac 
tically  the  limit  as  far  as  the  extreme  southern  extension  of 
the  stock,  at  the  heads  of  the  south  fork  of  the  American 
River  and  the  Cosumnes.  The  Washoes  about  Lake  Tahoe 
doubtless  forced  their  way  at  times  a  little  over  the  crest,  and 
at  best  this  crest-line  was  more  or  less  debatable  ground.  On 
the  south  the  stock  appears  to  have  extended  to  the  middle 
fork  of  the  Cosumnes,  which  river  forms  their  southern  limit 
all  the  way  to  its  confluence  with  the  Sacramento.  On  the 
west  the  latter  river  was  in  general  the  boundary-line  as  far 
north  as  Chico,  whence  the  line  ran,  it  would  seem,  along  Deer 
Creek,  back  to  Lassen  Peak. 

The  Maidu  is  spoken  in  three  dialects,  which  may  be  desig 
nated  as  the  northeastern,  the  northwestern,  and  the  southern. 
The  first  of  these  is  spoken  by  that  portion  of  the  stock  living 
in  the  chain  of  broad,  flat-floored  valleys  in  the  higher  Sierra, 
beginning  with  Big  Meadows  in  the  north,  and  ending  with 
Sierra  Valley  in  the  south.  The  second  group  occupies  all  the 
western  slope  of  the  Sierras  and  the  Sacramento  Valley  north 
of  the  Yuba  River.  The  third  group  comprises  all  the  re 
mainder,  and,  roughly  speaking,  is  synonymous  with  the 
Nishinam  of  Powers.  The  various  groups  came  into  contact 
with  different  stocks  in  varying  degree,  and  all  show  the 

[May,  1902.]  33  S 


159445 


34      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

influence  of  such  contact.  The  northeastern  group  came  into 
close  contact  with  their  northern  neighbors  the  Achoma'wi, 
or  Pit  River  Indians,  and  with  the  Piutes  who  border  them 
on  the  east.  The  northwestern  group  were  associated  with 
the  Wintun  of  the  west  side  of  the  Sacramento  River,  and 
with  the  Yana  who  occupied  the  east  side  of  the  river,  above 
Deer  Creek.  The  southern  section  of  the  Maidu  stock  were  in 
contact  with  the  Washoes,  with  peoples  of  the  so-called  Mo- 
quelumnan  stock,  and  with  the  Wintuns.  The  contact  of  the 
sections  of  the  stock  with  different  neighbors  led  to  notice 
able  differences  in  culture,  myth,  and  dialect  ;  and  these 
tendencies  toward  varying  cultures  were  in  many  cases  re- 
enforced  by  considerable  differences  of  environment. 

Although  there  were  differences,  as  just  pointed  out,  the 
customs  of  the  Maidu  were,  on  the  whole,  of  the  same  general 
type  throughout.  All  were  a  hunting  and  fishing  people,  de 
pendent  in  large  measure,  however,  on  the  acorn  and  various 
seeds  and  roots.  Originally  they  went  about  nearly  if  not 
quite  naked;  only  in  the  winter  season  and  in  the  mountains 
they  wore  robes. of  deer-skin,  or  mantles  woven  of  rabbit-fur 
cut  in  long  strips.  Moccasins  seem  to  have  been  worn  more 
in  the  mountains  than  in  the  Sacramento  Valley,  although  in 
the  latter  region  they  were  used  to  a  considerable  extent.  No 
covering  was  worn  on  the  head,  as  a  rule;  but  it  seems  that 
the  net-cap  (wi'ka),  used  chiefly  at  dances,  was  sometimes 
worn  as  an  every-day  covering.  Their  dwellings  varied 
somewhat  according  to  locality,  the  heavy  snows  and  cold 
weather  of  the  mountains  requiring  a  more  solid  and  warmer 
house  than  the  mild  winters  of  the  Sacramento  Valley.  In 
general,  however,  the  houses  were  alike,  and  were  circular, 
semi-subterranean  lodges  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  feet  or 
more  in  diameter,  and  from  ten  to  fifteen  feet  high.  They 
were  made  by  excavating  to  a  depth  of  some  three  feet,  and 
lining  the  sides  of  the  excavation  with  posts  or  split  logs  some 
four  or  five  feet  high.  These  were  set  on  end,  and  formed 
substantial  walls.  A  solid  conical  roof  was  erected  over  the 
enclosure  thus  made,  the  supporting  beams  resting  on  several 
posts,  and  meeting  at  the  centre.  A  smoke-hole  was  left  in 


1902 


.]'  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  35 


the  middle,  and  a  small  door  cut  at  one  side,  this  door  being 
very  low,  and  forcing  the  person  entering  to  crawl  on  all-fours 
in  many  cases.  The  roof  was  thickly  covered  with  earth. 
The  resulting  house,  or  sweat-house,  as  it  is  generally  called 
to-day,  was  in  winter  both  warm  and  dry,  and  in  summer, 
owing  to  the  heavy  earth  covering,  delightfully  cool.  Sum 
mer  shelters  and  less  elaborate  huts  were  built  of  branches  and 
large  splinters  of  fallen  trees  placed  together  in  conical  form. 
Light  brush  shelters,  consisting  of  a  mere  roof  of  brush,  and 
open  on  all  sides,  were  also  much  used. 

In  their  social  organization  the  Maidu  showed  apparently 
a  complete  lack  of  any  clan  organization  or  totemic  grouping. 
They  were  grouped  loosely  in  village  communities  which 
seem  to  have  been  by  no  means  firmly  knit.  The  villages 
were  usually  composed  of  but  few  houses,  each  of  which  was 
the  residence  of  several  families  related  by  blood.  There  are 
known  to-day  a  large  number  of  village  sites,  all  of  which 
cannot  have  been  simultaneously  inhabited ;  and  it  seems  not 
unlikely  that  the  people  of  a  village,  after  living  for  some 
years  at  one  spot,  moved,  or  perhaps  divided,  and,  either  in 
whole  or  in  part,  settled  on  a  site  that  had  been  inhabited 
some  years  or  even  generations  before.  If  all  the  known 
village  sites  had  been  inhabited  at  the  same  time,  the  popula 
tion  of  the  region  would  have  been  incredibly  dense;  and  I 
believe  that  the  earlier  estimates  of  the  population  of  this  and 
other  sections  of  California  were  erroneous,  owing  to  the  fact 
that  it  was  supposed  that  all  the  villages  known  had  at  one 
time  been  simultaneously  inhabited.  Each  village  had  its 
chief,  but  his  power  was  comparatively  slight.  The  villages 
were  constantly  involved  in  petty  quarrels,  which  were  usu 
ally  settled  with  but  little  loss  of  blood. 

The  chief  ceremonials  in  the  religion  of  the  Maidu  were  the 
initiatory  ceremonies  for  the  boys  or  young  men  at  or  about 
the  age  of  puberty,  and  the  great  annual  "burning"  for  the 
dead.  The  former  ceremony  appears  to  have  been  best  de 
veloped  among  the  northwestern  branch  of  the  stock,  and 
exists  in  a  much  less  perfect  form  among  the  southern  section. 
Boys  are  initiated  at  the  age  of  twelve  years  or  thereabouts. 


3 6      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

Not  all  boys  go  through  the  ceremony,  the  ones  who  are  to 
undergo  it  being  chosen  by  the  old  men  every  year.  After 
initiation,  the  men  were  known  as  "  YS'poni,"  and  were  much 
looked  up  to.  They  formed  a  sort  of  secret  society,  and  in 
cluded  all  the  men  of  note  in  the  tribe.  The  ceremonies  were 
more  or  less  elaborate,  involving  fasts,  instruction  in  the 
myths  and  lore  of  the  tribe  by  the  older  men,  and  finally  a 
great  feast  and  dance,  at  which  the  neophytes  for  the  first 
time  performed  their  dances,  which  were  probably  received 
through  visions.  The  "burning"  in  honor  of  the  dead  usu 
ally  occurred  in  October,  the  exact  date  depending  on  the 
moon's  phases.  It  is  probable  that  the  dead  were  burned 
throughout  the  Maidu  area,  but  many  contradictory  state 
ments  make  it  somewhat  difficult  to  settle  this  matter  defi 
nitely  at  present.  The  "burning,"  already  alluded  to  as  one 
of  the  two  great  ceremonies  of  the  Maidu,  was  not  that  of  the 
body  of  the  dead,  but  of  offerings  of  various  sorts,  —  a  common 
ceremonial  for  the  dead,  in  which  the  whole  village  or  several 
villages  joined.  At  the  appointed  time  the  people  assemble, 
and  after  various  preliminary  ceremonies  the  relatives  of  all 
those  persons  who  have  recently  died  consign  to  the  flames 
large  amounts  of  property  of  all  sorts,  —  baskets,  clothes, 
food,  etc.,  —  accompanying  the  act  with  wailing  and  songs. 
At  the  first  "burning"  which  occurs  after  the  death  of  a  per 
son,  an  image  representing  the  deceased,  made  of  skins  and 
stuffed,  is  often  burned,  together  with  the  gifts.  The  sacrifice 
of  property  to  the  dead  is  not,  as  a  rule,  continued  beyond  two 
or  three  years,  but  in  some  cases  offerings  have  been  made 
annually  for  ten  or  fifteen  years.  From  various  accounts  it 
would  seem  that  at  times  the  widows  attempted  to  throw 
themselves  into  the  funeral  pyres  of  their  husbands,  and  also 
burned  themselves  severely  at  the  "burnings." 

The  mythology  of  the  Maidu  presents  many  features  of  in 
terest.  No  adequate  comparative  discussion  of  the  material 
is  yet  possible,  inasmuch  as,  with  the  exception  of  the  Wintun 
and  Yana,  we  know  practically  nothing  of  the  myths  of  the 
neighboring  stocks  of  California,  Oregon,  and  Nevada.  When 
material  from  these  regions  shall  have  been  collected,  we  may 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  37 

be  able  to  clear  up  many  points  now  obscure.  With  few 
exceptions,  the  myths  here  presented  were  told  in  English, 
and  are  almost  exclusively  from  the  two  northern  sections  of 
the  stock.  While  the  time  has  not  yet  come  for  any  detailed 
discussion  of  the  points  of  agreement  or  disagreement  of 
these  myths  with  those  of  the  more  remote  tribes  and  stocks 
of  the  country,  several  of  the  more  noticeable  similarities  to 
those  of  the  neighboring  stocks  may  be  pointed  out: 

The  first  of  the  myths  here  given,  describing  the  creation 
and  subsequent  events,  shows  several  points  of  similarity  to 
myths  of  the  neighboring  stocks  of  the  Wintun,  Yana,  Pit 
River,  and  Shasta  Indians.  In  myths  of  nearly  all  these 
peoples  we  find  men  brought  into  being  from  sticks;  and  in 
all  of  them  the  Coyote  plays  the  same  part  of  marplot,  op 
posing  himself  to  the  intention  to  make  man's  life  easy,  labor- 
less,  and  deathless.  The  Coyote  decides  that  man  must 
work,  suffer,  and  die;  and  his  own  son  is  the  first  to  bear  the 
penalty  of  the  decision,  which  the  Coyote,  in  his  grief,  in  vain 
tries  to  repeal.  Indeed,  we  find  much  the  same  idea  among 
the  Shoshone  tribes  to  the  eastward  of  the  Maidu,  for  Powell 
records  a  similar  struggle  between  the  two  Wolf  brothers  who 
figure  so  prominently  in  the  Ute  mythology.1  The  presence 
of  the  well-known  Algonkian  incident  of  the  diving  for  mud 
with  which  to  make  the  world,  is  of  interest  as  giving  another 
example  of  its  wide  distribution.  In  the  story  of  the  Earth- 
Namer  we  have  a  number  of  incidents  (lacking  in  the  other 
tale)  describing  the  destruction  or  metamorphosis  of  various 
evil  beings  and  monsters  by  the  Earth-Namer,  who  here  ap 
proaches  the  type  of  the  Transformer  of  the  Northwest  coast. 
This  type  appears  again,  although  less  clearly,  in  the  two 
versions  of  the  Conqueror  story,  where  one  of  a  pair  of  twins 
of  miraculous  birth  performs  great  deeds  and  rids  the  country 
of  the  evil  beings  who  destroyed  his  ancestors. 

In  the  myths  which  follow  there  are  many  which  are  similar 
to,  and  one  or  two  which  are  identical  with,  myths  of  the  sur 
rounding  stocks.  These  similarities  are  most  marked,  per 
haps,  in  the  stories  of  the  Thunder's  Daughter,  the  Loon 

1  J.  W.  Powell,  First  Report  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  pp.  44,  45. 


38      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

Woman,  and  the  Bear  and  Deer.  In  these  myths  and  in 
several  of  the  others  we  have  incidents  which  are  current  as 
far  north  as  British  Columbia,  and  offer  interesting  examples 
of  widely  distributed  'myth-incidents.  The  figure  of  the 
Coyote  is  prominent.  He  seems  to  be  generally  inimical  to 
mankind,  and  appears  often  as  a  buffoon  and  trickster,  who 
comes  out  of  his  adventures  in  a  sorry  plight. 

As  to  analogies  or  similarities  between  the  myths  of  the 
Maidu  and  those  of  the  various  stocks  to  the  southward,  little 
can  be  said  at  present.  Virtually  nothing  is  known  of  the 
mythology  of  these  stocks  in  the  southern  part  of  California. 
In  the  meagre  accounts  of  the  Indians  of  San  Juan  Capis- 
trano  (Shoshonean)  by  Boscana  we  find  several  rather  vague 
similarities  to  the  Conqueror  stories  of  the  Maidu.  The 
Coyote  is  a  person  of  importance,  and  it  is  at  least  curious  to 
find  that  he  bears  here  a  name  (Eno)  almost  identical  with 
that  in  use  by  the  Maidu  of  the  western  slope  of  the  northern 
Sierra  (Heno).  As  will  be  apparent  from  the  myths  here 
given,  there  are  many  evidences  of  the  widespread  incor 
poration  of  foreign  incidents,  and  even  of  the  adoption  of 
whole  myths.  As  stated  before,  our  knowledge  of  the  myth 
ology  of  the  surrounding  stocks  is  as  yet  too  slight  to  enable 
us  with  profit  to  make  a  detailed  study  of  such  incidents,  or 
to  attempt  to  trace  them  to  their  origin.  When  such  ma 
terial  shall  be  available,  it  would  seem  probable  that  many 
most  interesting  examples  of  the  intermingling  of  northern 
and  southern  elements  will  be  apparent,  and  enable  us  per 
haps  to  trace  more  accurately  the  lines  of  migration  and  the 
mutual  relationships  of  the  great  mass  of  stocks  scattered 
along  the  Pacific  coast  from  the  Columbia  River  to  Mexico. 

In  the  references  which  follow,  only  the  more  striking  cases 
of  similarity  are  pointed  out  between  the  Maidu  myths  on 
the  one  hand  and  those  collected  by  Boas,1  Curtin,2  Teit,3 


1  F.  Boas,  Indianische  Sagen  von  der  Nord-Pacifischen  Kuste  Amerikas,  Berlin, 
1805  (quoted  /.  c.);  Traditions  of  the  Tillamook  (Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore,  Vol. 
XI,  pp.  23  and  133);  Kathlamet  Texts  (Bulletin  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology, 
Washington,  1901). 

*  J.  Curtin,  Creation  Myths  of  Primitive  America.     Boston,  1898. 

3  J.  Teit,  Traditions  of  the  Thompson  River  Indians  of  British  Columbia  (Memoirs 
of  the  American  Folk-Lore  Society,  Vol.  VI). 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maid  it  Myths.  39 

Gatschet,1  Powers,2  Powell,3  Kroeber,4  Farrand,8  and  Burns,6 
on  the  other. 

I.  Creation  Myth? 

In  the  beginning  there  was  no  sun,  no  moon,  no  stars.  All 
was  dark,  and  everywhere  there  was  only  water.  A  raft 
came  floating  on  the  water.  It  came  from  the  north,  and  in 
it  were  two  persons, — Turtle  (A'nosma)  and  Father-of-the- 
Secret-Society  (Pehe'ipe').8  The  stream  flowed  very  rapidly. 
Then  from  the  sky  a  rope  of  feathers,  called  Po'kelma,  was  let 
down,  and  down  it  came  Earth- Initiate.  When  he  reached 
the  end  of  the  rope,  he  tied  it  to  the  bow  of  the  raft,  and 
stepped  in.  His  face  was  covered  and  was  never  seen,  but 
his  body  shone  like  the  sun.  He  sat  down,  and  for  a  long 
time  said  nothing.  At  last  Turtle  said,  "Where  do  you  come 
from?"  and  Earth- Initiate  answered,  "I  come  from  above." 
Then  Turtle  said,  "Brother,  can  you  not  make  for  me  some 
good  dry  land,  so  that  I  may  sometimes  come  up  out  of 
the  water?"  Then  he  asked  another  time,  "Are  there  going 
to  be  any  people  in  the  world?"  Earth- Initiate  thought 
awhile,  then  said,  "Yes."  Turtle  asked,  "How  long  before 
you  are  going  to  make  people?"  Earth- Initiate  replied,  "I 
don't  know.  You -want  to  have  some  dry  land:  well,  how  am 
I  going  to  get  any  earth  to  make  it  of?"  Turtle  answered, 
"If  you  will  tie  a  rock  about  my  left  arm,  I'll  dive  for  some." 
Earth- Initiate  did  as  Turtle  asked,  and  then,  reaching 
around,  took  the  end  of  a  rope  from  somewhere,  and  tied  it 
to  Turtle.  When  Earth- Initiate  came  to  the  raft,  there  was 
no  rope  there:  he  just  reached  out  and  found  one.  Turtle 
said,  "If  the  rope  is  not  long  enough,  I'll  jerk  it  once,  and 

1  A.  S.  Gatschet,  The  Klamath  Indians  of  South-western  Oregon  (Contributions  to 
North  American  Ethnology,  Vol.  II,  Part  i). 

-  S.  Powers,  Tribes  of  California  (Contributions  to  North  American  Ethnology,  Vol. 
III). 

3  J.  W.  Powell,  Sketch  of  the  Mythology  of  the  North  American  Indians  (First  Re 
port  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology). 

4  A.  L.  Kroeber,  Ute  Tales  (Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore,  Vol.  XIV,  pp.  252  et  seq.). 

5  L.  Farrand,  Traditions  of  the  Chilcotin  (Memoirs  American  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  Vol.  IV,   Part     I);    Traditions  of  the  Quinault  Indians  (Memoirs  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  Vol.  IV,  Part  III). 

8   L.  M.  Burns,  Digger  Indian  Tales  (Land  of  .Sunshine,  Vol.  XIV,  pp.  130  et  seq.). 

7  Told  at  Chico.     Compare  Curtin,  /.  c.,  pp.  163  et  seq.;  Powell,  /.  c.,  p.  44;  Powers, 
/.  c.,  pp.  292  et  seq.;    Farrand,  Quinault,  p.  in. 

8  The  Pehe'ipe  is  to-day  a  participant  in  the  dances  of  the  Secret  Society,  and 
usually  plays  the  part  of  a  clown. 


40      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

you  must  haul  me  up;  if  it  is  long  enough,  I'll  give  two  jerks, 
and  then  you  must  pull  me  up  quickly,  as  I  shall  have  all  the 
earth  that  I  can  carry."  Just  as  Turtle  went  over  the  side  of 
the  boat,  Father-of-the-Secret-Society  began  to  shout  loudly. 

Turtle  was  gone  a  long  time.  He  was  gone  six  years ;  and 
when  he  came  up,  he  was  covered  with  green  slime,  he  had 
been  down  so  long.  When  he  reached  the  top  of  the  water, 
the  only  earth  he  had  was  a  very  little  under  his  nails:  the 
rest  had  all  washed  away.  Earth- Initiate  took  with  his 
right  hand  a  stone  knife  from  under  his  left  armpit,  and  care 
fully  scraped  the  earth  out  from  under  Turtle's  nails.  He 
put  the  earth  in  the  palm  of  his  hand,  and  rolled  it  about  till  it 
was  round ;  it  was  as  large  as  a  small  pebble.  He  laid  it  on  the 
stern  of  the  raft.  By  and  by  he  went  to  look  at  it:  it  had 
not  grown  at  all.  The  third  time  that  he  went  to  look  at  it, 
it  had  grown  so  that  it  could  be  spanned  by  the  arms.  The 
fourth  time  he  looked,  it  was  as  big  as  the  world,  the  raft 
was  aground,  and  all  around  were  mountains  as  far  as  he 
could  see.  The  raft  came  ashore  at  Ta'doiko,  and  the  place 
can  be  seen  to-day.1 

When  the  raft  had  come  to  land,  Turtle  said,  "I  can't 
stay  in  the  dark  all  the  time.  Can't  you  make  a  light,  so  that 
I  can  see?"  Earth- Initiate  replied,  "Let  us  get  out  of  the 
raft,  and  then  we  will  see  what  we  can  do."  So  all  three  got 
out.  Then  Earth- Initiate  said,  "Look  that  way,  to  the 
east!  I  am  going  to  tell  my  sister  to  come  up."  Then  it 
began  to  grow  light,  and  day  began  to  break;  then  Father-of- 
the-Secret-Society  began  to  shout  loudly,  and  the  sun  came 
up.  Turtle  said,  "Which  way  is  the  sun  going  to  travel?" 
Earth- Initiate  answered,  "I'll  tell  her  to  go  this  way,  and 
go  down  there."  After  the  sun  went  down,  Father-of-the- 
Secret-Society  began  to  cry  and  shout  again,  and  it  grew 
very  dark.  Earth- Initiate  said,  "I'll  tell  my  brother  to 
come  up."  Then  the  moon  rose.  Then  Earth-Initiate  asked 
Turtle  and  Father-of-the-Secret-Society,  "How  do  you  like 
it?"  and  they  both  answered,  "It  is  very  good."  Then 
Turtle  asked,  "Is  that  all  you  are  going  to  do  for  us?"  and 

1  Compare  Boas,  /.  c.,  p.  173;  Powers,  /.  c.t  p.  383. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths. 


Earth-Initiate  answered,  "No,  I  am  going  to  do  more  yet." 
Then  he  called  the  stars  each  by  its  name,  and  they  came 
out.  When  this  was  done,  Turtle  asked,  "Now  what  shall 
we  do?"  Earth-Initiate  replied,  "Wait,  and  I'll  show  you." 
Then  he  made  a  tree  grow  at  Ta'doiko, —  the  tree  called 
Hu'kimtsa;  and  Earth- Initiate  and  Turtle  and  Father-of- 
the-Secret-Society  sat  in  its  shade  for  two  days.  The  tree 
was  very  large,  and  had  twelve  different  kinds  of  acorns 
growing  on  it. 

After  they  had  sat  for  two  days  under  the  tree,  they  all 
went  off  to  see  the  world  that  Earth- Initiate  had.  made. 
They  started  at  sunrise,  and  were  back  by  sunset.  Earth- 
Initiate  travelled  so  fast  that  all  they  could  see  was  a  ball  of 
fire  flashing  about  under  the  ground  and  the  water.  While 
they  were  gone,  Coyote  (Ola'li)  and  his  dog  Rattlesnake 
(Ka'udi  or  So'la)  came  up  out  of  the  ground.  It  is  said  that 
Coyote  could  see  Earth-Initiate's  face.  When  Earth-Ini 
tiate  and  the  others  came  back,  they  found  Coyote  at  Ta' 
doiko.  All  five  of  them  then  built  huts  for  themselves,  and 
lived  there  at  Ta'doiko,  but  no  one  could  go  inside  of  Earth- 
Initiate's  house.  Soon  after  the  travellers  came  back,  Earth- 
Initiate  called  the  birds  from  the  air,  and  made  the  trees 
and  then  the  animals.  He  took  some  mud,  and  of  this  made 
first  a  deer;  after  that,  he  made  all  the  other  animals.  , Some 
times  Turtle  would  say,  "That  does  not  look  well:  can't  you 
make  it  some  other  way?" 

Some  time  after  this,  Earth-Initiate  and  Coyote  were  at 
Marysville  Buttes  (E'stobiisin  ya/mani).  Earth- Initiate 
said,  "I  am  going  to  make  people."  In  the  middle  of  the 
afternoon  he  began,  for  he  had  returned  to  Ta'doiko.  He 
took  dark  red  earth,  mixed  it  with  water,  and  made  two 
figures,  —  one  a  man,  and  one  a  woman.  He  laid  the  man  on 
his  right  side,  and  the  woman  on  his  left,  inside  his  house. 
Then  he  lay  down  himself,  flat  on  his  back,  with  his  arms 
stretched  out.  He  lay  thus  and  sweated  all  the  afternoon 
and  night.  Early  in  the  morning  the  woman  began  to 
tickle  him  in  the  side.  He  kept  very  still,  did  not  laugh. 
By  and  by  he  got  up,  thrust  a  piece  of  pitch- wood  into  the 


42      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XV II, 

ground,  and  fire  burst  out.  The  two  people  were  very  white. 
No  one  to-day  is  as  white  as  they  were.  Their  eyes  were 
pink,  their  hair  was  black,  their  teeth  shone  brightly,  and 
they  were  very  handsome.  It  is  said  that  Earth-Initiate 
did  not  finish  the  hands  of  the  people,  as  he  did  not  know 
how  it  would  be  best  to  do  it.  Coyote  saw  the  people,  and 
suggested  that  they  ought  to  have  hands  like  his.  Earth- 
Initiate  said,  "No,  their  hands  shall  be  like  mine."  Then  he 
finished  them.  When  Coyote  asked  why  their  hands  were 
to  be  like  that,  Earth-Initiate  answered,  "So  that,  if  they 
are  chased  by  bears,  they  can  climb  trees."  This  first  man 
was  called  Ku'ksii;  and  the  woman,  Morning-Star  Woman 
( La'idamluliim  kii'le1). 

When  Coyote  had  seen  the  two  people,  he  asked  Earth- 
Initiate  how  he  had  made  them.  When  he  was  told,  he 
thought,  "That  is  not  difficult.  I'll  do  it  myself."  He  did 
just  as  Earth- Initiate  had  told  him,  but  could  not  help 
laughing,  when,  early  in  the  morning,  the  woman  poked  him 
in  the  ribs.  As  a  result  of  his  failing  to  keep  still,  the  people 
were  glass-eyed.  Earth-Initiate  said,  "I  told  you  not  to 
laugh,"  but  Coyote  declared  he  had  not.  This  was  the  first 
lie.1 

By  and  by  there  came  to  be  a  good  many  people.  Earth- 
Initiate  had  wanted  to  have  everything  comfortable  and 
easy  for  people,  so  that  none  of  them  should  have  to  work. 
All  fruits  were  easy  to  obtain,  no  one  was  ever  to  get  sick  and 
die.  As  the  people  grew  numerous,  Earth-Initiate  did  not 
come  as  often  as  formerly,  he  'only  came  to  see  Ku'ksu  in  the 
night.  One  night  he  said  to  him,  "To-morrow  morning  you 
must  go  to  the  little  lake  near  here.  Take  all  the  people  with 
you.  I'll  make  you  a  very  old  man  before  you  get  to  the 
lake."  So  in  the  morning  Ku'ksu  collected  all  the  people, 
and  went  to  the  lake.  By  the  time  he  had  reached  it,  he 
was  a  very  old  man.  He  fell  into  the  lake,  and  sank  down 
out  of  sight.  Pret'ty  soon  the  ground  began  to  shake,  the 
waves  overflowed  the  shore,  and  there  was  a  great  roaring 

1  Compare  Curtin,  /.  c.,  p.  483.  Both  the  Yana  and  the  Pit  River  Indians  also  have 
versions  more  nearly  similar  to  the  one  here  given. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  43 

under  the  water,  like  thunder.  By  and  by  Ku'ksu  came  up 
out  of  the  water,  but  young  again,  just  like  a  young  man. 
Then  Earth-Initiate  came  and  spoke  to  the  people,  and  said, 
"  If  you  do  as  I  tell  you,  everything  will  be  well.  When  any 
of  you  grow  old,  so  old  that  you  cannot  walk,  come  to  this 
lake,  or  get  some  one  to  bring  you  here.  You  must  then  go 
down  into  the  water  as  you  have  seen  Ku'ksu  do,  and  you 
will  come  out  young  again."  When  he  had  said  this,  he 
went  away.  He  left  in  the  night,  and  went  up  above. 

All  this  time  food  had  been  easy  to  get,  as  Earth- Initiate 
had  wished.  The  women  set  out  baskets  at  night,  and  in  the 
morning  they  found  them  full  of  food,  all  ready  to  eat,  and 
lukewarm.  One  day  Coyote  came  along.  He  asked  the 
people  how  they  lived,  and  they  told  him  that  all  they  had  to 
do  was  to  eat  and  sleep.  Coyote  replied,  "That  is  no  way  to 
do :  I  can  show  you  something  better. ' '  Then  he  told  them 
how  he  and  Earth-Initiate  had  had  a  discussion  before  men 
had  been  made;  how  Earth- Initiate  wanted  everything  easy, 
and  that  there  should  be  no  sickness  or  death,  but  how  he  had 
thought  it  would  be  better  to  have  people  work,  get  sick,  and 
die.  He  said,  "We'll  have  a  burning."  The  people  did  not 
know  what  he  meant;  but  Coyote  said,  "I'll  show  you.  It 
is  better  to  have  a  burning,  for  then  the  widows  can  be  free." 
So  he  took  all  the  baskets  and  things  that  the  people  had, 
hung  them  up  on  poles,  made  everything  all  ready.  When 
all  was  prepared,  Coyote  said,  "At  this  time  you  must  always 
have  games."  So  he  fixed  the  moon  during  which  these 
games  were  to  be  played. 

Coyote  told  them  to  start  the  games  with  a  foot-race,  and 
every  one  got  ready  to  run.  Ku'ksu  did  not  come,  however. 
He  sat  in  his  hut  alone,  and  was  sad,  for  he  knew  what  was 
going  to  occur.  Just  at  this  moment  Rattlesnake  came  to 
Ku'ksu,  and  said,  "What  shall  we  do  now?  Everything  is 
spoiled!"  Ku'ksu  did  not  answer,  so  Rattlesnake  said, 
"Well,  I'll  do  what  I  think  is  best."  Then  he  went  out  and 
along 'the  course  that  the  racers  were  to  go  over,  and  hid  him 
self,  leaving  his  head  just  sticking  out  of  a  hole.  By  this  time 
all  the  racers  had  started,  and  among  them  Coyote's  son. 


44      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

He  was  Coyote's  only  child,  and  was  very  quick.  He  soon 
began  to  outstrip  all  the  runners,  and  was  in  the  lead.  As 
he  passed  the  spot  where  Rattlesnake  had  hidden  himself, 
however,  Rattlesnake  raised  his  head  and  bit  the  boy  in  the 
ankle.  In  a  minute  the  boy  was  dead. 

Coyote  was  dancing  about  the  home-stake.  He  was  very 
happy,  and  was  shouting  at  his  son  and  praising  him.  When 
Rattlesnake  bit  the  boy,  and  he  fell  dead,  every  one  laughed 
at  Coyote,  and  said,  "Your  son  has  fallen  down,  and  is  so 
ashamed  that  he  does  not  dare  to  get  up."  Coyote  said, 
"No,  that  is  not  it.  He  is  dead."  This  was  the  first  death. 
The  people,  however,  did  not  understand,  and  picked  the 
boy  up,  and  brought  him  to  Coyote.  Then  Coyote  began  to 
cry,  and  every  one  did  the  same.  These  were  the  first  tears. 
Then  Coyote  took  his  son's  body  and  carried  it  to  the  lake  of 
which  Earth- Initiate  had  told  them,  and  threw  the  body  in. 
But  there  was  no  noise,  and  nothing  happened,  and  the  body 
drifted  about  for  four  days  on  the  surface,  like  a  log.  On 
the  fifth  day  Coyote  took  four  sacks  of  beads  and  brought 
them  to  Ku'ksu,  begging  him  to  restore  his  son  to  life.  Ku'ksu 
did  not  answer.  For  five  days  Coyote  begged,  then  Ku'ksu 
came  out  of  his  house,  bringing  all  his  beads  and  bear-skins, 
and  calling  to  all  the  people  to  come  and  watch  him.  He 
laid  the  body  on  a  bear-skin,  dressed  it,  and  wrapped  it  up  care 
fully.  Then  he  dug  a  grave,  put  the. body  into  it,  and  covered 
it  up.  Then  he  told  the  people,  "From  now  on,  this  is  what 
you  must  do.  This  is  the  way  you  must  do  till  the  world 
shall  be  made  over." 

About  a  year  after  this,  in  the  spring,  all  was  changed.  Up 
to  this  time  everybody  spoke  the  same  language.  The  people 
were  having  a  burning,  everything  was  ready  for  the  next 
day,  when  in  the  night  everybody  suddenly  began  to  speak  a 
different  language.  Each  man  and  his  wife,  however,  spoke 
the  same.  Earth-Initiate  had  come  in  the  night  to  Ku'ksu, 
and  had  told  him  about  it  all,  and  given  him  instructions  for 
the  next  day.  So,  when  morning  came,  Ku'ksu  called  all  the 
people  together,  for  he  was  able  to  speak  all  the  languages. 
He  told  them  each  the  names  of  the  different  animals,  etc., 


1902.]  Dixon^  Maidu  Myths.  45 

in  their  languages,  taught  them  how  to  cook  and  to  hunt, 
gave  them  all  their  laws,  and  set  the  time  for  all  their  dances 
and  festivals.  Then  he  called  each  tribe  by  name,  and  sent 
them  off  in  different  directions,  telling  them  where  they  were 
to  live.  He  sent  the  warriors  to  the  north,  the  singers  to  the 
west,  the  flute-players  to  the  east,  and  the  dancers  to  the 
south.  So  all  the  people  went  away,  and  left  Ku'ksu  and  his 
wife  alone  at  Ta'doiko.  By  and  by  his  wife  went  away, 
leaving  in  the  night,  and  going  first  to  Marysville  Buttes. 
Ku'ksu  staid  a  little  while  longer,  and  then  he  also  left.  He 
too  went  to  the  Buttes,  went  into  the  spirit  house  (Ku/kinim 
Kumi),  and  sat  down  on  the  south  side.  He  found  Coyote's 
son  there,  sitting  on  the  north  side.  The  door  was  on  the 
west.  Coyote  had  been  trying  to  find  out  where  Ku'ksu  had 
gone,  and  where  his  own  son  had  gone,  and  at  last  found 
the  tracks,  and  followed  them  to  the  spirit  house.  Here  he 
saw  Ku'ksu  and  his  son,  the  latter  eating  spirit  food 
(Ku'kinim  pe).  Coyote  wanted  to  go  in,  but  Ku'ksu  said, 
"No,  wait  there.  You  have  just  what  you  wanted,  it  is 
your  own  fault.  Every  man  will  now  have  all  kinds  of 
troubles  and  accidents,  will  have  to  work  to  get  his  food, 
and  will  die  and  be  buried.  This  must  go  on  till  the  time 
is  out,  and  Earth- Initiate  comes  again,  and  everything  will 
be  made  over.  You  must  go  home,  and  tell  all  the  people 
that  you  have  seen  your  son,  that  he  is  not  dead."  Coyote 
said  he  would  go,  but  that  he  was  hungry,  and  wanted  some 
of  the  food.  Ku'ksu  replied,  "You  cannot  eat  that.  Only 
ghosts  may  eat  that  food."  Then  Coyote  went  away  and 
told  all  the  people,  "I  saw  my  son  and  Ku'ksu,  and  he  told 
me  to  kill  myself."  So  he  climbed  up  to  the  top  of  a  tall  tree, 
jumped  off,  and  was  killed.  Then  he  went  to  the  spirit 
house,  thinking  he  could  now  have  some  of  the  food;  but 
there  was  no  one  there,  nothing  at  all,  and  so  he  went  out, 
and  walked  away  to  the  west,  and  was  never  seen  again. 
Ku'ksu  and  Coyote's  son,  however,  had  gone  up  above. 


46      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

2.  The  Earth-Namer  (Ko'doyanpS).1 

Coyote  and  the  Earth-Namer  lived  on  the  north  fork  of  the 
Feather  River,  just  below  Na'kangkoyo.  Coyote  had  a  son. 
Earth-Namer  said  to  Coyote,  "I  am  going  away  from  here. 
I  am  going  off  to  the  east."  Coyote  replied,  "All  right.  We 
are  two  chiefs,  we  are  the  two  greatest  chiefs,  and  therefore 
you  must  talk  to  me  well  before  you  go."  Earth-Namer  said, 
"Well,  I  will  talk  to  you  before  I  go.  This  world  is  going  to 
be  for  people.  There  are  going  to  be  people  in  this  world.  We 
are  the  two  chiefs.  I  will  talk  to  you,  and  you  must  sit  down 
and  listen.  After  me  in  this  world,  people  will  have  children. 
When  a  couple  get  married,  people  will  take  something  and 
put  it  between  them  if  they  want  a  child,  and  that  thing  will 
become  a  person."  Coyote  shook  his  head  and  said,  "No, 
you  are  not  talking  right.  I'll  tell  you  something  better. 
The  way  people  must  have  children  is  for  the  woman  to  have 
a  hard  time.  She  must  have  a  hard  time  to  have  a  child,  she 
must  suffer."  Earth-Namer  did  not  want  people  to  have 
sexual  connection  with  one  another;  but  Coyote  said,  "When 
two  people  get  married,  they  must  have  connection;  it  must 
be  so."  Earth-Namer  said  that  girls  would  live  as  virgins 
always,  but  Coyote  would  not  agree.  He  said,  "No,  girls, 
if  they  are  not  married,  must  sometimes  have  children."  By 
and  by  Earth-Namer  said,  "When  people  who  have  died  are 
taken  to  water,  laid  in,  and  left  there  over  night,  they  will 
come  to  life  again  next  morning."  Coyote  said,  "No,  when 
people  die,  the  rest  of  the  people  must  cry.  A  widow  must  cry 
very  much;  and  if  a  person  dies,  he  must  be  buried.  When 
they  are  buried,  it  will  be  all  right,  for  the  other  people  will 
see  nothing  of  them."  So  Coyote  disputed  everything  that 
Earth-Namer  said.  Finally  Earth-Namer  got  angry,  gath 
ered  up  his  things,  put  them  in  a  sack,  and  started  off.  There 
was  a  trail  from  the  camp  to  the  place  where  they  used  to  go 
for  water.  Earth-Namer  pulled  up  two  rushes,  and  stuck 
them  into  the  ground,  one  on  each  side  of  the  trail,  so  as  to 
lean  over  the  trail.  Till  now  Coyote's  son  had  never  been 

1  Told  at  Genesee,  Plumas  County. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  47 

allowed  to  go  for  water,  had  never  been  allowed  to  leave  the 
house.  When  Earth-Namer  had  fixed  the  rushes  in  this  way, 
he  went  on  toward  the  east. 

Soon  Coyote  sent  his  son  out  to  get  some  water.  Before 
he  got  to  the  place  where  the  two  rushes  were,  they  had  be 
come  rattlesnakes,  and  as  he  passed,  they  bit  him  in  the  leg 
and  killed  him.  Earth-Namer  wanted  to  have  it  happen 
this  way,  for  Coyote  had  wanted  people  to  die.  When  Coyote 
found  that  his  son  was  dead,  he  ran  after  Earth-Namer,  say 
ing,  "Well,  we  will  have  it  your  way,  people  shall  not  die." 
When  he  got  nearly  up  to  Earth-Namer,  he  said,  "Look 
back!  You  are  the  chief;  if  you  will  stop,  I  will  talk  better 
than  I  did  before."  But  Earth-Namer  paid  no  attention  to 
him,  and  kept  on  his  way.  So  from  that  time  there  have 
always  been  rattlesnakes  and  people  have  died. 

There  is  a  place  called  Tsu/tsuyem.  It  is  on  Indian  Creek. 
The  women  who  lived  there  tried  to  kill  people  who  passed 
by  urinating  on  them.  When  Earth-Namer  came  along,  he 
went  on  the  opposite  side.  The  women  tried  to  urinate 
across,  but  could  not  reach  him.  He  had  a  cane  in  his  hand, 
and  walked  along,  paying  no  attention  to  the  women.  A 
little  beyond  there,  Mink  and  his  brother  were  living,  and 
Earth-Namer  staid  with  them  over  night.  Near  by  was  a 
great  snake  that  tried  to  kill  everybody.  Mink  and  his 
brother  asked  Earth-Namer  to  try  and  trap  the  snake.  He 
did  so,  and  in  the  morning  went  on  again.  Before  he  went 
he  said,  "  Go  to  the  trap  and  see  if  the  snake  is  dead.  If  it  is, 
take  the  fat,  take  it  to  Tsu/tsuyem,  and  at  night,  when  all  are 
in  the  sweat-house,  crawl  up  and  throw  it  into  the  fire." 
When  the  snake  got  into  the  trap,  it  jumped  high  in  the  air; 
but  the  Minks  jumped  after  it,  and  cut  it  in  two,  taking  half 
of  it.  In  the  snake  was  some  sort  of  milky  fluid,  which  fell 
out  as  they  cut  it  in  two.  As  the  Minks  looked  up,  some  fell 
on  them,  and  left  a  white  spot  under  their  chins.  They  took 
the  fat,  and  did  as  Earth-Namer  had  told  them  to.  The 
women  and  people  at  Tsu/tsuyem  were  having  a  great  sweat- 
dance;  and  when  the  Minks  threw  in  the  fat,  everything 
began  to  blaze  up,  and  all  the  people  and  the  sweat-house 


48      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

were  burned.  There  is  a  great  hole  in  the  ground  there  to-day. 
Earth-Namer  went  on  from  here  farther  up  the  stream,  and 
into  Big  Meadows  to  O'ngketi.  Here  he  found  Crow  and  his 
brother.  They  said,  "The  reason  why  we  never  kill  any 
thing  is  because  our  knives  are  dull."  Then  they  asked 
Earth-Namer  to  sharpen  their  knives,  which  were  their  bills. 
He  did  as  they  asked,  and  went  on  up  river  to  where  Fish- 
Hawk  was  fishing.  He  caught  a  fish,  and  held  it  up,  saying, 
"If  you  come  from  below,  eat  this."  -Then  he  swallowed  it 
himself.  When  he  had  done  this,  Earth-Namer  said,  "I 
wish  you  would  choke  and  die;"  and  he  did. 

Earth-Namer  went  on,  travelled  and  travelled  till  he  came 
to  The-Two-Raft-striking-Boys  (Ya'kwSktelkom  po'betso). 
They  had  a  dog,  Ground-Hog.  Ground-Hog  saw  Earth- 
Xamer  coming,  and  began  to  yelp.  Just  as  he  did  so, 
Earth-Namer  sank  down  into  the  earth,  and  went  along 
underground.  When  he  got  within  a  few  feet  of  Ground- Hog, 
he  put  up  his  head,  and  saw  that  the  animal  was  still  watching 
the  place  where  he  had  gone  down.  The  two  boys  got  out 
their  knives,  and  said,  "These  are  what  we  kill  people  with." 
Then  Earth-Namer  reached  over  and  killed  Ground-Hog. 
He  stuck  him  in  his  belt,  and  went  on  to  the  camp  of  the  two 
boys.  They  hid  their  knives.  They  had  a  raft  on  which 
they  took  people  across  the  river,  and  thus  they  tried  to  kill 
them.  They  would  bring  the  raft  within  a  few  feet  of  the 
shore,  make  the  people  jump,  and  then  would  kill  them. 
Earth-Namer  asked  them  if  they  would  take  him  across  the 
river.  They  agreed,  and  did  as  usual,  asking  him  to  jump  on. 
He  did  so,  but  landed  in  the  middle  of  the  raft,  and  did  not 
fall  down.  The  two  boys  were  about  to  stab  him ;  but  when 
they  saw  that  he'  did  hot  fall,  they  waited. 

Earth-Namer  said,  "Why  are  you  making  a  motion?  Let 
me  see  your  knife."  So  they  gave  it  to  him;  and  he  said,  "I 
will  point  with  this  knife  and  show  you  the  country,  so  that 
you  can  learn  something."  So  he  took  the  knife,  and,  while 
making  believe  point  out  different  things,  he  cut  off  their 
heads.  The  two  boys  had  a  sort  of  oven  in  which  they  used 
to  bake  people  when  they  had  killed  them.  Earth-Namer 


1902.]  Dtxon,  Maidu  Myths.  49 

put  the  bodies  into  the  oven,  but  first  cut  off  their  membrum 
virile.  There  was  an  old  W9man  who  was  living  there  also. 
She  was  the  grandmother  of  the  two  boys.  Earth-Namer 
thought  that  after  a  while  she  would  miss  the  boys,  and 
would  run  up  to  see  what  the  trouble  was.  So  he  placed  a 
membrum  virile  on  each  side  of  the  oven  for  a  trap.  Then 
he  went  on  to  where  the  old  woman  was.  He  still  had 
Ground-Hog  under  his  belt;  and  when  he  reached  the  camp, 
he  threw  it  at  the  old  woman,  and  told  her  to  eat  it.  Then 
she  knew  at  once  that  something  had  happened  to  the  boys. 
She  threw  it  back  at  him,  and  told  him  to  eat  it.  Earth- 
Namer  then  lay  down,  and  pretended  to  go  to  sleep;  but  he 
really  went  on,  and  left  only  an  appearance  of  himself  in  the 
camp.  When  the  old  woman  thought  he  was  asleep,  she 
pulled  out  her  digging-stick  and  struck  at  the  shade.  When 
she  found  that  there  was  nothing  there,  she  said,  "That  is 
what  I  thought,  all  the  time,  you  would  try  to  do."  Then 
she  was  sure  there  was  something  wrong,  and  she  ran  down 
to  the  place  where  Earth-Namer  had  set  the  trap  for  her. 
When  she  got  there,  the  trap  sprung,  flew  up  and  hit  her,  and 
killed  her. 

Earth-Namer  w^ent  on  farther  up  the  valley,  to  the  place 
where  his  grandmother  lived.  She  was  called  Old-Grouse- 
Woman  (Ho'kwongkulSkbe).  There  he  rested  awhile.  From 
here  he  went  on  up  through  Mountain  Meadows  to  the  east. 
In  one  place  he  sat  down  to  eat  pa'pani  (a  kind  of  root).  He 
sat  facing  the  east,  and  he  scattered  pa'pani  all  about,  and 
people  go  there  still  to  gather  it.  His  footprints  are  there  yet. 
As  he  went  on  to  the  east,  a  she  -Grisly  Bear  chased  him,  but 
could  not  catch  him.  So  she  took  off  her  apron,  or  skirt,  and 
whirled  it  about  her  head,  and  thus  started  fire,  with  which 
to  surround  Earth-Namer.  He  asked  the  water  what  it 
could  do  to  help  him,  and  the  water  answered,  "I  boil  from 
the  heat  of  the  fire."  He  asked  the  trees,  and  they  replied, 
"We  burn  in  the  fire."  He  asked  the  rock,  and  it  answered, 
"  I  get  red-hot  in  the  fire. ' '  Then  he  asked  a  kind  of  grass,  and 
'it  answered,  "I  get  black  on  top,  but  I  don't  burn.  Be 
neath  I  am  not  burned."  So  Earth-Namer  crawled  under  it. 

[May,  iqo2.~\  4- 


50      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

After  the  fire  had  burned  over  the  whole  country,  Earth- 
Namer  came  out  and  went  on.  On  the  mountains  at  that 
place  one  can  see  the  burned  rocks  and  trees  caused  by  that 
fire.  So  Earth-Namer  went  on;  and  the  bear,  finding  his 
track,  kept  on  following  him.  Earth-Namer  went  off  to  the 
east;  and  when  he  got  there,  he  staid  there;  he  is  there  yet. 


When  people  first  came  to  this  country,  they  had  with 
them  an  old  woman.  She  knew  everything,  all  the  past  was 
known  to  her.  She  told  ttie  people  to  behave  themselves  and 
be  good,  for  the  world  was  going  to  change.  After  a  while 
the  world  began  to  shake,  kept  on  shaking,  kept  rising 
higher  and  higher.  As  the  world  shook,  the  people  were 
thrown  about.  Some  were  thrown  into  bushes,  some  into 
trees.  The  shaking  threw  the  trees  down;  they  were 
covered  up,  and  are  found  now  buried  deep  in  the  ground. 
The  shaking  of  this  world  made  it  settle;  and  as  it  set 
tled,  it  forced  the  water  up  through  the  ground.  As  a 
result  of  these  things  the  world  was  made  into  its  present 
form.  This  old  woman  had  an  acorn-pestle,  which  she  had 
used  to  pound  acorns  with;  and  when  the  world  was  shaking, 
she  held  tight  to  it.  All  the  time  she  kept  hammering  with 
it  on  the  ground,  to  try  to  wedge  or  fasten  it  down.  By  and 
by  the  world  began  to  settle,  and  people  could  hear  some 
thing  like  thunder  under  the  ground.  When  all  was  quiet, 
people  looked  down  into  the  valley,  and  saw  something  mov 
ing.  These  things  were  rivers,  they  were  the  first  rivers. 
After  awhile  the  people  went  down  to  look  at  the  valley,  and 
found  the  rivers  all  muddy.  By  and  by  the  old  woman  said, 
"They  put  me  in  this  world  to  see  all  these  things  for  my 
children.  I  will  tell  all  my  people  in  this  world  before  I  go. 
I  think  there  will  be  death  in  this  world;  I  think  this  will  be 
a  death- world.  You  people  must  do  the  best  you  can,  and 
live  through  it.  A  long  time  ago  they  told  me  that  people 
would  have  to  live  in  the  middle  of  the  world."  The  old 
woman  knew  everything  about  the  past  and  the  future.  She 
somehow  lived  over  from  the  time  when  there  were  no  people, 
and  -was  the  only  old  woman  among  the  people  when  they 


1902.1  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  5* 

were  first  made.  She  said,  "One  of  the  men  here  will  be  a 
shaman  (yo'mi).  He  will  hear  everything  in  these  moun 
tains.  He  will  hear  all  the  spirits  (ku'kini).  Whenever  he 
sings,  the  spirits  will  talk  to  you  and  tell  you  whether  a 
person  will  live  or  die.  The  spirits  will  teach  you  everything. 
Whenever  they  want  any  one  to  become  a  shaman,  they  will 
tell  him.  Whatever  the  spirits  say,  you  must  believe,  and 
must  do  as  they  say,  then  you  will  become  shamans.  In 
that  way  you  people  must  live  here  in  this  world,  and  do  the 
best  you  can.  Live  as  long  as  you  can.  If  you  die  and  leave 
children,  they  must  do  the  same.  You  people  will  live  a  long 
time  in  this  way  in  this  world." 

j.   The  Conqueror} 

There  were  two  old  men  who  were  brothers.  Their  names 
were  Wa'pamdakpam  and  Kiu'madessim.  They  lived  at 
Tsu'pionon  in  a  large  sweat-house.  They  had  many  children 
who  lived  with  them.  The  people  used  to  go  from  here  to  the 
southwest  to  hunt  geese,  and  killed  many.  They  had  a  place 
where  they  stopped  to  cook  and  eat  before  they  went  home. 
The  two  old  men  went  with  them  to  the  hunt.  They  told  the 
people  always,  "  Hurry  up  and  cook  your  food,  and  eat  it  and 
go  home.  Something  may  come  after  us."  Bald-Eagle  (Mo'- 
loko  ?) ,  who  lived  far  up  in  the  sky,  would  come  and  kill  the  peo 
ple.  Just  below  the  sweat-house  was  a  bluff,  and  now  and  then 
people  would  hear  Ground- Squirrel  there  barking.  When  they 
heard  him,  some  would  go  to  try  to  kill  him;  and  if  they  went, 
they  never  came  back  again.  When  they  went  down  to  the 
bluff  and  shot  the  squirrel,  they  would  see  the  squirrel  drop, 
and  would  go  to  pick  him  up.  When  they  got  to  the  place,  they 
would  find  nothing;  and  when  they  began  to  come  back,  they 
would  be  surrounded  by  rattlesnakes,  and  would  be  killed  by 
them.  There  was  another  sweat-house  near  by,  just  below 
the  one  where  the  two  old  men  and  their  people  lived.  This 
belonged  to  Wood-Bug.  He  would  get  up  a  sweat-dance 
sometimes,  and  many  of  his  people  would  come  to  it.  The 

1  Told  at  Genesee,  Plurnas  County.  Compare  pp.  59  et  seq;  also  Powers,  /.  c.,  pp. 
294  et  seq. 


5  2       Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XV II, 

people  at  Tsu'pionon  would  hear  the  noise,  and  would  say, 
"  Let  us  go  and  see  what  they  are  doing  down  there.  Let  us 
go  and  have  a  dance."  Then  two  or  three  would  go.  When 
they  got  there,  Wood-Bug  would  say,  "Come  in."  Then 
they  would  begin  to  dance,  would  dance  all  about  the  sweat- 
house.  The  people  there  would  knock  against  the  visitors 
as  they  danced,  knock  them  about,  and  kill  them.  There  was 
another  place  off  to  the  east  where  an  old  woman  lived.  She 
was  called  Man-straightening-Old- Woman  (Ma'idukapitkim 
kulo'kbe1).  People  from  Tsu'pionon,  in  hunting  or  walking 
about,  would  sometimes  come  to  her  house.  They  would 
talk  to  her;  and  she  would  look  at  them  and  say,  "What  a 
fine-looking  man  you  are!  only  you  are  not  straight.  If 
your  back  were  straight,  you  would  look  better.  Your 
mother  ought  to  have  straightened  you  when  you  were  born." 
She  had  something  in  her  hand,  which  she  said  she  used  to 
straighten  people.  She  would  say,  "Let  me  take  this  and 
straighten  you  out,  —  straighten  your  arms,  legs,  and  body,  — 
and. then  when  I  get  you  done,  you  will  be  a  straight  man." 
She  had  a  sort  of  couch  or  bed  of  stone  which  she  had  ready 
for  this  purpose.  She  would  get  the  man  to  lie  on  this  on  his 
face,  and  then  she  would  rub  him  with  what  she  had  in  her 
hand.  Back  of  her,  however,  she  kept  a  great  stone  pestle; 
and  while  she  was  rubbing  the  man,  she  would  reach  around 
with  one  hand  and  take  this  pestle,  hit  him  in  the  small  of 
the  back  with  it,  and  kill  him.  Sometimes  people  would  see, 
when  they  went  north  from  the  sweat-house,  an  elk's  track. 
They  would  follow  it,  two  or  three  of  them,  follow  it  and  fol 
low  it,  and  would  die  before  they  got  to  the  elk. 

One  day  many  people  went  goose-hunting.  They  stopped 
to  cook  and  eat.  The  old  men  advised  them  to  hurry,  but 
before  they  could  get  away,  they  heard  something  far  up 
in  the  sky:  it  was  Bald-Eagle  coming.  They  could  hear 
the  whirr  of  his  wings  as  he  swooped  down  on  them.  As 
he  came,  Eagle  sang,  "Ye  from  Tsu'pionon,  though  ye 
wish  to  hit  me,  ye  cannot"  (" Bo'yenkatitmak  bo'men  mam 
tsu'pionona").  When  Eagle  was  about  halfway  down, 
some  one  threw  a  stone  at  him  with  a  sling ;  but  as  he  came 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  53 

down,  he  came  zigzagging  from  side  to  side,  and  the  man 
missed  him.  Every  one  tried  to  hit  Eagle,  but  missed  him. 
Then  the  two  old  men  tried.  Wa'pamdakpam  threw,  and 
just  grazed  Eagle,  knocking  off  a  few  feathers.  Then  Kiu'ma- 
dessim  threw,  and  did  the  same.  By  this  time  Eagle  had 
gotten  nearly  down;  and  when  he  reached  the  ground,  he 
killed  all  the  people  except  the  two  old  men.  They  had 
knocked  off  some  of  his  feathers,  and  he  could  not  kill  them. 
So  the  two  old  men  came  home  alone,  and  all  their  people 
were  gone  except  a  few  that  had  staid  at  home. 

After  this,  all  the  people  left  Tsu/pionon,  and  went  to  the 
southwest,  to  Hela'iono,  to  gamble.  They  travelled  on  and 
on,  and  came  to  a  river,  where  all  sat  down  to  rest.  They 
were  going  to  swim  the  river,  and  looked  across  and  saw 
women  on  the  other  side,  pounding  acorns,  making  soup,  and 
cooking  bread.  In  the  middle  of  the  river  was  a  plant  that 
stuck  up  out  of  the  water.  When  people  came  to  this  river, 
they  chose  the  best  swimmer,  who  had  to  swim  across  above 
the  plant.  If  he  did  not  get  across,  he  died.  This  was  a  way 
there  was  at  that  time  of  gambling  for  people.  All  the  people 
from  Tsu/pionon  started  and  swam  across.  The  two  old  men 
and  most  of  the  others  got  safely  across,  but  some  were 
drowned.  There  was  a  sweat-house  on  the  other  side.  All 
the  people  went  to  it.  The  entrance,  which  sloped  down 
steeply,  and  the  whole  floor,  were  of  smooth  ice.  People 
would  slip  on  this  floor,  fall,  and  slide  about  till  they  got 
killed.  Many  of  the  people  slipped,  fell,  and  were  killed; 
but  the  two  old  men  and  a  few  others  were  left.  By  and  by 
the  people  who  lived  at  this  place  brought  in  a  big  basket  of 
soup.  If  a  person  could  drink  it  all  up,  he  got  off  safely;  if 
he  could  not  do  this,  he  died.  All  the  people  except  the  two 
old  men  were  killed  in  this  way;  and  they,  when  they  es 
caped,  came  back  to  Tsu/pionon. 

The  two  old  men  had  one  daughter,  who  had  not  gone  with 
the  people  when  they  went  to  Hela'iono.  She  had  staid  at 
home,  and  was  the  only  one  left,  besides  the  two  old  men. 
When  they  told  her  about  losing  all  their  people,  she  began  to 
cry,  and  went  out  to  gather  clover.  All  the  time  she  was 


54      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

gathering  it,  she  was  crying.  Every  day  she  went  out  this 
way  to  gather  clover,  and  every  day  she  cried  all  the  while. 
One  day  a  man  came  to  meet  her  as  she  was  picking  clover  in 
the  valley.  He  said,  "What  are  you  crying  about?  You 
must  stop.  If  you  will  marry  me,  I  will  give  you  two  chil 
dren.  I  think  we  are  married  anyhow,  so  it  is  all  right.  I 
live  far  up  in  the  sky.  I  am  Cloud-Man."  He  talked  to  her 
for  a  while,  and  gave  her  two  bunches  of  black  feathers.  He 
said,  "These  will  be  children.  One  will  be  Always-eating 
(Pe'msauto) ;  the  other  will  be  Conqueror  or  Winner  (O'nkoito) . 
Put  these  things  away  where  the  two  old  men  will  not  see 
them.  No  matter  how  much  food  you  cook,  or  what  kind,  or 
where  you  set  it  down,  Always-eating  will  eat  it.  He  will  eat 
for  both  boys."  He  gave  her  two  scratching-sticks  for  the 
boys  to  use,  and  said,  "When  you  start  these  two  boys  out, 
they  will  travel  all  over  the  world,  find  all  the  monsters  that 
kill  people,  and  will  destroy  them.  They  will  overcome 
everybody."  She  took  the  two  bunches  of  feathers,  and  put 
them  away  safely  in  a  basket  in  the  house.  She  kept  cooking 
food  for  the  two  boys,  kept  busy  all  the  time,  and  every  day 
all  that  she  cooked  disappeared.  By  and  by  the  two  old 
men  suspected  something.  One  said,  "What  is  the  trouble? 
There  must  be  something  the  matter.  Our  daughter  is 
always  cooking  food,  but  it  goes,  it  is  not  there  next  day." 
They  began  to  look  about  the  house,  and  saw  one  of  the  two 
scratching-sticks  sticking  in  a  crack  of  the  wall.  They 
thought  it  belonged  to  one  of  their  people  that  they  had  lost, 
and  said,  "  Let  us  throw  this  into  the  fire  and  burn  it  up.  It 
must  be  one  of  the  scratching-sticks  of  our  children  who  were 
lost."  So  one  took  it  and  threw  it  into  the  fire.  The  stick 
began  to  burn,  it  popped  and  snapped,  and  a  great  many 
sparks  flew  out.  As  soon  as  this  happened,  the  two  boys 
jumped  out  of  the  basket  in  which  they  had  been,  and  ran  out 
of  the  house.  When  the  two  old  men  saw  the  boys  run  out, 
they  looked  at  the  stick,  and  saw  that.it  was  still  unburned: 
so  they  seized  it,  and  took  it  out  of  the  fire.  As  soon  as  the 
boys  went  outside,  they  grew  to  be  men.  The  two  old  men 
said  to  each  other,  "Where  did  these  two  boys  come  from? 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  55 

We  never  saw  them  before.  How  could  they  be  here  and  we 
not  see  them?"  The  mother  was  off  pounding  acorns,  but 
she  saw  the  boys  run  out,  and  came  hurrying  up  to  see  what 
was  the  trouble.  She  said  to  the  two  old  men,  "  Can't  you 
be  sensible?  When  you  see  something  in  the  house  which 
you  don't  understand,  why  don't  you  let  it  alone? "  Then  she 
took  a  stick  and  hit  the  old  men,  and  knocked  them  down. 

Soon  after  the  two  boys  came  out,  the  Squirrel  at  the  bluff 
began  to  bark,  crying  "Ti'tsuk,  ti'tsuk,  ti'tsuk!"  and  trying 
to  call  them.  Conqueror  went  into  the  house,  and  restored 
his  grandfathers  to  life.  Then  he  said,  "Give  me  your  bow 
and  arrows.  I  want  to  go  and  kill  that  Squirrel."  The  old 
men  said,  "No,  that  is  a  bad  place.  That  is  where  all  our 
children  were  killed,  where  so  many  of  our  people  were  killed. 
Let  Squirrel  alone,  let  him  bark."  Conqueror  said,  "Hurry 
up!  Give  me  the  bow  and  arrows:  I  want  to  try,  anyhow." 
After  a  while  the  old  men  gave  him  the  bow  and  arrows. 
Conqueror  stood  right  in  the  doorway,  did  not  go  near  Squir 
rel,  but  shot  and  killed  him  from  the  door.  Then  he  put  on 
his  stone  shoes,  and  went  to  where  Squirrel  was.  All  about 
he  could  see  the  bones  of  those  that  had  been  killed  there. 
Then  the  rattlesnakes  began  to  come  out,  surrounded  him, 
and  began  to  strike  at  him ;  but  he  stamped  on  them  with  his 
stone  shoes,  and  killed  them  all.  Then  he  pulled  up  the 
rocks,  and  pulled  out  all  the  snakes  that  were  under  them, 
stamped  on  them,  and  killed  them.  Then  he  said,  "You 
shall  be  rattlesnakes.  You  must  not  kill  everybody  any 
more.  You  shall  live  as  rattlesnakes."  Then  he  took 
Squirrel  and  carried  him  back  to  camp,  and  threw  him  down 
where  the  two  grandfathers  were.  As  soon  as  they  saw  him, 
they  jumped  up  and  began  to  sing  and  shout  and  dance,  they 
were  so  glad  to  have  Squirrel  and  the  snakes  killed.  They 
said,  "You  were  the  one  who  killed  all  my  people."  Then 
they  took  him  and  tore  him  to  pieces,  and  stamped  on  him 
and  danced  on  him,  ground  him  up  till  there  was  nothing  left 
of  him.  When  night  came,  Conqueror  was  standing  outside, 
and  heard  a  sound  as  of  people  dancing.  It  was  the  Wood- 
Bug  people,  who  were  dancing  at  their  camp.  Conqueror 


56      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

put  on  his  shirt  of  red-hot  rock,  and  went  to  the  place  whence 
the  sound  came.  He  went  into  the  house  and  began  to 
dance  with  them.  They  tried  to  do  as  they  had  always  done 
before,  and  knocked  him  about;  but  Conqueror  did  the  same, 
and  knocked  them  about,  knocked  against  people,  knocked 
them  this  way  and  that,  burned  them  with  his  red-hot  stone 
shirt,  and  killed  them  all.  Then  he  said,  "You  shall  say 
that  you  are  only  wood-bugs.  You  will  be  wood-bugs;  you 
cannot  harm  people  any  more." 

The  next  morning  he  went  to  the  place  where  Man-straight- 
ening-Old- Woman  lived.  She  saw  him,  and  talked  to  him 
as  she  always  did  to  people  she  wanted  to  kill.  She  asked 
him  to  let  her  straighten  him,  and  he  agreed.  Conqueror  lay 
down  on  the  stone,  and  the  old  woman  began  to  rub  him. 
She  reached  back  for  her  big  stone,  and  struck  at  him  with  it; 
but  Conqueror  dodged,  and  she  missed.  She  hit  the  rock  on 
which  people  were  laid  out,  and  broke  her  pounding-rock  in 
this  way,  and  a  piece  flew  off  and  killed  her.  Then  Con 
queror  went  away  and  said,  "You  will  never  kill  any  more 
people.  You  will  be  nothing  after  this."  When  he  got 
home,  he  went  north,  and  saw  an  elk-track.  It  was  fresh. 
Elk  had  passed  but  a  short  time  before,  and  so  he  followed 
it.  He  travelled  and  travelled  all  round  the  world  after  Elk. 
Then  Elk  made  a  straight  cut  across  the  middle  of  the  world, 
and  Conqueror  nearly  caught  up  with  him.  He  thought  he 
had  him  surely,  but  all  at  once  he  lost  the  trail.  He  looked 
for  it,  kept  looking  for  it  everywhere,  kept  hunting,  searched 
all  around,  but  could  not  find  it.  After  a  while  he  heard  a 
little  bird  call  to  him  from  above,  saying,  "Look  up  here, 
look  up  here!"  Elk  had  jumped  up,  meaning  to  jump  over 
the  sky  and  get  away;  but  just  as  he  was  going  over,  Cloud- 
Man  stopped  him.  So  Conqueror  saw  Elk's  legs  hanging 
down  where  his  father,  Cloud-Man,  had  stopped  him.  Cloud- 
Man  was  always  watching  his  son  from  above.  Cloud-Man 
killed  Elk;  and  Conqueror  said,  "Whenever  people  find  you, 
they  will  kill  you  for  meat.  You  will  be  an  elk." 

From  here  he  turned  round  and  came  back  to  the  place 
where  his  mother  and  grandfathers  lived.  He  travelled  and 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  57 

travelled,  and  finally  reached  it.  He  said  that  night,  "  Grand 
father,  I  want  some  meat  in  the  morning.  I  want  to  kill 
geese  and  ducks.  Do  you  know  where  I  can  find  them?" 
When  morning  came,  Conqueror  and  his  brother  and  the  two 
old  men  started  out  and  went  west.  They  killed  many  ducks 
and  geese,  and  went  to  the  place  where  they  used  formerly 
to  eat  something  before  they  came  home.  They  built  a  fire, 
cooked  the  geese,  and  began  to  eat.  Then  they  heard,  far  up 
in  the  sky,  Bald-Eagle  coming.  .  They  watched,  and  pretty 
soon  they  saw  him.  Conqueror  said,  "You  two  old  men 
throw  first.  I  want  to  see  how  you  used  to  do  when  you 
saved  yourselves."  So  one  of  the  old  men  threw,  and  just 
knocked  off  a  feather.  He  said,  "That  is  what  I  do  to  save 
myself."  Then  the  other  old  man  did  the  same,  and 
said,  "  That  is  what  I  do  to  save  myself."  Then  Always- 
eating  threw.  He  hit  Eagle,  took  off  some  feathers,  and 
some  skin  too,  did  better  than  the  two  old  men.  Eagle  was 
singing,  as  he  always  did,  "Ye  from  Tsu'pionon,  though  ye 
wish  to  hit  me,  ye  cannot! "  Then  Conqueror  threw,  and  hit 
Eagle,  destroyed  him  all  but  the  wings,  that  fell  down. 
All  the  rest  was  knocked  to  pieces.  Then  Conqueror  said, 
"After  this  you  will  be  a  bird.  You  will  live  up  in  the 
Heaven- Valley.  People  will  never  see  you  any  more." 
Then  they  went  back  home,  and  found  Conqueror's  mother 
cooking,  for  Always-eating  ate  a  great  deal. 

Conqueror  said  to  his  grandfathers,  "Did  you  ever  go  any 
where  to  gamble?  If  you  did,  let  us  go  and  gamble."  They 
said,  "We  used  to  gamble  at  Hela'iono.  That  is  where  we 
lost  all  our  people."  Next  morning  they  started.  They 
travelled  and  travelled,  and  finally  reached  the  river.  The 
old  men  said,  "We  used  to  start  from  here,  swim  by  that 
plant,  and  managed  to  get  out.  That  is  the  way  we  got 
along."  Conqueror  said,  "  Let  us  try  it,  one  at  a  time.  You 
go  first,  for  I  want  to  see  how  you  do  it."  So  they  swam  one 
after  the  other.  Nobody  ever  could  swim  up  to  the  plant, 
they  were  carried  down  below  it;  but  Always-eating  swam 
close  to  it,  beat  every  one  that  had  tried  before.  Then 
Conqueror  went,  and  swam  up  to  the  plant,  pulled  it  up,  and 


58      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

carried  it  with  him  to  the  other  side.  At  this  time  the  people 
began  to  carry  the  soup  into  the  sweat-house  to  have  it  ready 
for  the  visitors.  Conqueror  sent  the  two  old  men  in  first. 
They  had  canes  in  their  hands,  but  slipped,  floundered  about 
nevertheless,  yet  did  not  fall.  Conqueror  went  in,  wore  his 
stone  shoes,  crushed  the  floor  as  he  stepped  on  it,  broke  it  all 
to  pieces,  kicked  it  all  up,  kicked  it  outside.  He  said,  "Why 
do  you  have  an  ice  floor  in  the  house  where  people  live?" 
Always-eating  sat  down  by  the  soup,  drank  and  drank  and 
drank,  till  he  drank  it  all  up.  Then  he  took  the  basket  and 
threw  it  outside.  Then  they  began  to  gamble.  The  two  old 
men  were  to  begin.  The  other  side  won,  and  came  over,  and 
took  an  eye  from  each  of  the  old  men.  This  was  the  way 
people  used  to  do.  They  played  again,  and  the  two  old  men 
won  their  eyes  back.  Then  the  people  filled  the  basket  up 
again  with  soup,  and  gave  it  to  the  old  men  and  the  others. 
Always-eating  had  a  piece  of  flint  with  which  he  cut  a  hole 
in  the  bottom  of  the  basket  and  let  the  soup  run  out,  so  that  it 
looked  as  if  he  were  eating  it  all.  When  the  women  outside 
found  that  the  soup  had  been  finished  a  second  time,  they 
began  to  cry.  After  a  while  Conqueror  moved  up,  and 
entered  the  game.  The  person  with  whom  he  was  gambling 
had  a  path  through  his  body,  and  could  pass  the  gambling- 
bones  through  this  from  one  hand  to  the  other.  Conqueror 
stopped  up  this  passage  in  his  adversary's  body  without  his 
knowing  it,  and  opened  one  in  his  own  body.  Now  he  began 
to  win.  While  he  was  playing,  Conqueror  sang  the  song 
that  North- Wind  sings,  and  in  this  way  called  North- Wind 
to  him.  Conqueror  was  going  to  freeze  up  everything.  Con 
queror  kept  on  winning,  beat  them  all,  killed  most  of  the 
people  who  were  playing  against  him.  Then  North- Wind 
came  and  froze  up  everything.  Conqueror  had  killed  all  the 
people  except  two  women.  By  and  by  these  started  in  to 
gamble,  as  there  was  no  one  else  left.  They  kept  on  playing; 
and  when  they  were  almost  beaten,  they  jumped  up  and 
went  over  to  their  opponents'  side.  They  did  this,  as  they 
thought  they  might  save  their  lives  by  marrying  Conqueror 
and  Always-eating;  but  it  was  not  so,  and  they  were  killed. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  59 

As  Conqueror  and  his  brother  and  the  two  old  men  were  leav 
ing  to  go  home,  Conqueror  said,  "  People  will  talk  about  this, 
and  tell  of  how  we  gambled  here. ' '  Then  they  started.  They 
travelled  and  travelled,  finally  reached  home.  They  lived 
there  always. 

4.  Ku'tsem  yg'poni.1 

An  old  woman  and  an  old  man  were  living  alone  by  them 
selves.  The  old  woman  put  a  bead  in  a  basket  and  set  it 
away  in  the  house.  She  told  the  old  man  not  to  build  a  fire, 
and  then  went  off  to  bake  some  acorn-bread  by  the  creek. 
While  she  was  away  the  old  man  forgot,  and  built  a  fire.  The 
earth  began  to  shake,  and  he  ran  out  of  the  house.  When  he 
looked  back,  he  saw  a  boy  standing  by  the  fire.  His  name 
was  Ku'tsem  y£'poni.  By  and  by  the  boy  grew  to  be  a  young 
man.  He  was  always  playing  with  toy  bows  and  arrows. 
One  day  he  told  his  grandmother  that  he  wanted  a  bow  and 
arrows  such  as  the  men  carried.  So  to  please  him  his  grand 
mother  made  him  one.  This  boy  had  two  eyes  behind,  under 
his  shoulder-blades.  One  day  he  saw  what  he  thought  was 
a  gopher  with  its  head  sticking  up  out  of  the  ground.  He 
told  his  grandmother  that  he  wanted  a  spear  to  kill  the 
gopher  with.  She  said,  "You  will  always  be  in  trouble  as 
long  as  you  are  here."  He  took  the  spear  that  she  gave  him, 
and  jabbed  it  into  the  gopher;  but  it  turned  out  not  to  be  a 
gopher  at  all,  but  a  bear;  nevertheless  he  killed  it. 

He  told  his  grandmother  that  she  could  have  all  the  food 
she  wanted.  "I'll  kill  plenty,"  he  said.  Then  he  heard  the 
sound  of  a  dance  going  on  far  away  to  the  southward,  and  he 
wanted  to  go  and  see  what  it  was.  He  said  to  his  grand 
mother,  "There  must  be  some  one  living  there.  I  hear  dan 
cing.  I  want  to  go  and  see  it."  She  answered,  "It  will  only 
make  trouble  for  you  if  you  do."  But  he  went.  He  went 
toward  the  place  whence  he  heard  the  sound  of  the  dancing, 
and,  going  into  the  dance-house,  he  found  it  full  of  poisonous 
insects,  that  were  making  all  the  noise.  They  began  to  jump 
on  him  till  he  was  covered  with  them,  like  meat  with  flies, 

1  Told  at  Chico.  Compare  pp.  51  et  seq.  I  am  unable  to  give  any  meaning  for  this 
name. 


60      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

and  they  tried  to  overpower  him.  He  would  scrape  them  off 
his  arms  and  legs,  roll  them  into  a  ball,  throw  them  into  the 
fire,  and  burn  them  up.  Some  of  them  escaped,  however,  and 
those  that  we  have  to-day  are  descended  from  them. 

When  he  came  home,  he  told  his  grandmother  all  about  it. 
While  he  was  inside  telling  her,  a  lot  of  woodpeckers  were  out 
side  sitting  on  a  dry  limb  and  making  a  great  noise.  He  told 
his  grandmother  that  he  wanted  to  go  and  shoot  them.  She 
said,  "  If  you  miss  one,  you  will  surely  die  " ;  but  he  went  out 
and  shot  them  while  they  were  all  in  a  row,  and  killed  them 
all.  When  he  took  them  to  his  grandmother,  she  burned 
them,  as  she  did  everything  that  he  brought  her.  Then 
Great-Deer  came  along  dressed  as  for  a  dance.  He  had 
feathers  on  his  antlers,  and  his  eyes  shone  like  the  morning 
star.  He  was  called  Lift-up,  Chasing-up,  and  Running-Deer  1 
(WYsdom-sumi  and  Hei'nom-sumi  and  Yo'dom-sumi).  He 
came  from  the  north.  The  young  man  told  his  grand 
mother  that  he  had  seen  a  deer  and  wanted  to  go  and  kill  it. 
She  begged  him  not  to  do  so.  But  he  went.  He  shot  and  hit 
it.  He  had  two  arrows  winged  with  yellow-hammer  feathers. 
He  shot  one  and  kept  the  other.  The  deer  ran  north,  and  the 
young  man  ran  after  it  on  foot.  For  a  long  time  he  followed, 
but  finally  the  deer  gave  out.  All  the  time  that  the  young  man 
was  chasing  the  deer,  he  never  saw  it:  he  knew  which  way 
the  deer  had  gone  by  means  of  his  arrow.  When  he  slept  at 
night,  he  would  stick  the  second  arrow,  with  the  yellow- 
hammer  feathers,  into  the  ground  beside  him,  and  this  arrow 
and  the  one  in  the  deer  called  to  each  other  just  as  yellow- 
hammers  do.  When  it  was  dark,  the  young  man  heard 
something  (spirits)  singing  far  up  in  the  sky;  they  were  sing 
ing  to  help  him.  Finally  the  deer  came  to  the  end  of  its  run 
ning,  and  the  young  man  had  to  scout  for  it.  He  saw  where 
it  had  slipped  on  a  rock;  but  then  he  lost  the  trail,  and  could 
find  no  further  tracks.  After  looking  around  for  a  long  time 
in  vain,  he  picked  up  a  handful  of  dust,  and  asked  it  if  it  knew 
which  way  the  deer  had  gone.  The  dust  answered,  "You 
need  not  ask  me:  I'm  not  a  god's  son!  You  are,  and  you 

*  Elk. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  6 1 

ought  to  know.  Look  up,  you  will  see  its  hind-legs  sticking 
down  from  the  sky."  The  young  man  did  so,  and  there  the 
legs  were  as  plain  as  could  be.  He  knew  where  the  deer  was 
now,  but  he  did  not  know  how  to  get  up  to  it.  By  and  by  he 
called  the  clouds,  and  they  came  and  made  a  rainbow  for  him, 
and  he  went  up  on  that.  When  he  reached  the  top,  he  cut 
the  throat  of  the  deer,  and  threw  the  body  down  to  the  earth 
below,  but  he  took  off  all  the  deer's  feathers  first,  and  cut  off 
its  head,  and  carried  these  down  himself. 

The  food  that  the  young  man  lived  on  was  a  sort  of  berry 
called  moi'moimo :  it  was  like  a  gooseberry.  On  the  road  he 
met  a  man  who  was  hunting.  He  asked  the  man  where  he 
came  from,  and  he  answered,  "Ta'doiko."  Then  he  asked 
him  what  he  was  doing  in  this  country,  and  the  stranger 
answered,  "  I  am  hunting."  The  stranger  was  a  good-looking 
fellow,  and  at  first  the  young  man  did  not  know  who  he  was. 
The  stranger  asked  if  he  had  anything  to  eat,  as  he  was  very 
hungry,  since  he  had  not  been  able  to  kill  anything.  The 
young  man  said  that  he  had,  and  gave  the  stranger  some  of 
the  berries.  He  ate  them,  two  handfuls,  and  they  were  so 
good  that  he  thought  that  he  would  like  some  more.  So  he 
transformed  himself,  ran  ahead,  and  in  the  guise  of  an  old 
man  met  the  young  man  a  second  time.  He  told  the  same 
story  as  before,  and  as  before  got  two  handfuls  of  berries. 
He  ate  these,  and  tried  the  same  trick  again ;  this  time  meet 
ing  the  young  man  in  the  form  of  an  old  woman,  who  said  she 
was  looking  for  the  old  man,  who  was  her  husband.  Again 
the  young  man  gave  the  berries.  Hurriedly  eating  these,  the 
stranger  went  on  again,  and  for  the  fourth  time  met  the 
young  man,  this  time  as  a  beautiful  girl,  who  was  looking  for 
her  father  and  mother.  The  young  man  gave  her  two  hand 
fuls  of  berries,  but  began  to  wonder  why  he  met  so  many 
hungry  people.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  play  a  trick  on  the 
next  person  he  met.  He  took  some  of  the  berries,  mashed 
them,  and  made  a  ball  of  them.  Then  he  went  to  a  yellow- 
jacket's  nest,  and  put  some  of.  them  into  the  ball  of  berries. 
Soon  he  met  tire  stranger  again,  this  time  as  a  young  man. 
He  told  the  same  story,  and,  the  berries  being  handed  to  him, 


62      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

he  at  once  began  to  eat  them.  Soon  the  wasps  began  to 
sting  him  inside,  and  he  began  to  scream  and  kick.1  The 
young  man  then  went  back,  and  found  that  it  was  Coyote  who 
had  been  asking  him  for  the  berries  all  the  time.  He  never 
said  a  word,  but  went  away  and  left  him  lying  there. 

When  he  reached  his  home,  he  went  to  his  grandmother 
and  told  her  all  that  he  had  done.  There  was  an  old  man 
who  lived  with  his  grandmother:  he  was  called  Raccoon 
(Hu'mili).  The  young  man  said  to  him,  "Let's  go  and  have 
some  fun!  Let's  go  where  there  are  some  people  living!" 
Raccoon  said,  "I  don't  know  where  we  can  go  unless  we  go 
north,  but  I  don't  think  you  can  stand  it  to  go  there."  The 
young  man  said,  "Why  can't  I  stand  it?"  Then  Raccoon 
said,  "There  are  too  many  dangers  on  the  way,  and  at  the 
place  where  we  are  going";  but  the  young  man  persuaded 
him,  and  they  agreed  to  go.  They  took  four  sacks  of  beads, 
as  they  were  going  to  gamble. 

They  went  a  long  way,  and  came  to  a  river.  Said  Raccoon, 
"Sometimes  I  get  no  farther  than  here."  The  young  man 
said,  "You  swim  across  first,  and  I'll  follow  you."  So  the 
old  man  did  so.  When  he  was  about  halfway  or  more  across, 
he  looked  back,  and  saw  his  grandson  near  the  middle  of  the 
river.  He  could  not  tell  what  the  young  man  was  trying  to 
do.  The  latter  dived,  went  along  under  the  water,  and  came 
to  Marysville  Buttes.  He  went  there  to  get  some  gambling- 
medicine.  The  grandfather  swam  on  across  the  river,  got 
out,  and  stood  looking  for  his  grandson.  He  began  to  worry. 
He  waited  till  he  was  tired;  then  he  made  a  large  fire  and 
jumped  into  it,  and  was  all  burned  up  but  one  foot.  When 
the  young  man  got  back  from  his  excursion  to  the  Buttes,  he 
saw  no  one  anywhere  about.  He  called  for  his  grandfather, 
but  there  was  no  answer.  He  looked  for  tracks,  and  came 
upon  the  pile  of  ashes:  here  he  saw  traces  of  the  old  man. 
Then  he  saw  the  foot.  He  said  to  himself,  "The  old  man 
thought  I  was  dead,  so  he  burned  himself  up."  Then  he  took 
his  own  right  foot,  put  it  on  the  old  man's  foot,  and  said, 

1  See  F.  Boas,  Traditions  of  the  Tillamook  Indians  (Journal  of  American  Folk- 
Lore.  Vol.  XI.  p.  141). 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  63 

' '  Get  up ! "  and  up  jumped  the  old  man.  He  said  as  he  rubbed 
his  eyes,  "I  was  just  taking  a  nap.  I  must  have  overslept." 
Then  the  two  went  on,  as  before,  toward  the  north. 

They  came  to  the  place  where  they  were  to  gamble.  They 
were  to  gamble  with  Old-North-Wind,  Bo'dawinkano.  The 
young  man  said  to  his  grandfather  just  before  they  arrived  at 
the  village,  "When  you  go  into  the  house,  walk  slowly."  The 
old  man  said,  "  I  am  older  than  you;  I  guess  I  know  what  to 
do.  I  have  been  here  often.  I  can  walk  right  in."  They  went 
up  to  the  door.  The  young  man  went  ahead.  His  toe-nails 
were  like  eagles'  claws.  The  floor  slanted  down  from  the  door- 
sill,  and  on  the  floor  were  the  hides  of  blue-snakes:  they  were 
very  slippery.  When  he  got  inside,  he  called  to  the  old  man 
to  come  in,  but  to  be  very  careful.  The  old  man  came  in  in  a 
hurry,  slipped,  fell,  came  rolling  and  sliding  head-first  into  the 
room;  and,  hitting  a  drum  that  stood  at  the  east  side  of  the 
fire,  he  dashed  out  his  brains.  The  young  man,  however,  paid 
no  attention  to  him. 

Old- North- Wind  set  out  soup  for  the  young  man  to  eat. 
He  ate  all  that  he  wanted,  and  then  said,  "  Here  are  four  sacks 
of  beads.  I  have  come  to  gamble  with  you."  Old-North- 
Wind  answered,  "We  don't  play  for  beads  here,  we  play  for 
eyes  and  hearts  only."  The  young  man  did  not  know 
whether  he  would  play  that  way  or  not,  but  finally  said  he 
would.  They  began.  The  first  time,  the  young  man  lost  his 
grandfather's  eyes  and  heart.  When  he  found  that  he  was 
getting  beaten,  he  told  Old- North- Wind  that  he  had  to  go  out 
to  relieve  himself,  he  had  eaten  so  much  soup.  When  he  got 
outside,  he  picked  up  a  handful  of  dust  and  poured  it  on  a 
rock.  Then  he  asked  it  why  he  couldn't  win.  The  dust 
answered,  "I  am  not  a  god's  son.  You  are,  and  you  ought  to 
know."  The  young  man  could  not  get  any  answer  from  the 
dust,  but  the  latter  finally  told  him  to  ask  the  Sun.  He  did  so. 
The  Sun  said,  "I'll  tell  you  what  is  the  trouble.  Old-North- 
Wind  has  a  hole  under  his  armpits,  from  one  side  of  his  body 
to  the  other.  Through  this  hole  he  can  pass  the  bones  when 
he  gambles:  in  this  way  he  cheats  you.  When  you  go  in 
again,  call  for  a  fog:  I  will  then  shine  so  hard  that  the  fog  will 


64      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

be  like  glass  under  his  arms,  and  then  the  bones  will  not  go 
through.  They  will  bounce  off,  and  then  you  can  catch  him. " 
The  young  man  entered  the  house  again.  He  had  already  lost 
one  of  his  eyes.  He  did,  however,  as  the  Sun  had  advised ;  and 
when  Old- North- Wind  tried  to  shift  the  bones,  he  caught  him. 
From  that  moment  he  began  to  win  back  all  that  he  had  lost. 
He  won  the  eyes  and  heart  of  his  grandfather,  and  his  grand 
father  at  once  jumped  up  and  began  to  help  him.  He  won 
back  his  own  eye.  The  old  man  and  his  grandson  both 
played,  and  beat  every  one  there.  They  won  all  their  eyes 
and  hearts.  Old-North-Wind  wanted  to  stop  after  he  had  lost 
one  eye.  So  they  did. 

Soon  it  began  to  cloud  up  and  rain,  and  the  grandfather  and 
the  youth  started  for  home,  and  carried  all  the  eyes  and  hearts 
with  them.  When  they  got  back,  the  grandmother  said,  "I 
knew  you  had  won  as  soon  as  I  saw  it  rain."  He  staid  at 
home  for  ten  days.  Then  he  heard  a  noise  off  to  the  south,  at 
Wo'noma.  The  old  woman  that  lived  there  made  the  noise. 
The  young  man  asked  his  grandmother,  "Where  is  that  war? 
I  hear  some  one  giving  a  war-whoop."  She  replied,  "That  is 
only  for  you,  you  are  not  done  with  yet."  He  said,  "I  am 
going  to  see  what  the  noise  is,  anyway."  He  took  his  bow 
and  arrows  and  went.  When  he  got  there,  he  found  an  old 
woman  sitting  on  a  rock.  He  asked  her  where  the  war  was. 
He  put  his  foot  on  the  rock  near  by,  which  was  on  the  north 
side  of  the  knoll,  and  his  footprint  is  there  to  this  day.  The 
old  woman  said  to  him,  "I  am  your  great-grandmother,  and 
was  just  wishing  to  see  you.  You  are  a  fine  big  young  man. 
Lie  down  on  this  rock  and  let  me  straighten  the  bones  of  your 
back."  He  did  so,  and  she  rubbed  his  back  with  one  hand, 
while  with  the  other  she  drew  towards  her  a  huge  rock  with 
which  she  meant  to  strike  him.  She  raised  it  to  strike;  but 
with  the  eyes  in  his  back  he  saw  what  she  was  going  to  do,  and 
dodged  the  blow,  so  that  she  struck  the  rock  instead.  She 
began  to  abuse  him.  "You  are  the  first  one  I  ever  missed. 
There  are  all  your  brothers  over  there."  Then  the  young 
man  said  to  her,  "  Do  you  lie  down,  and  let  me  straighten  your 
back."  She  did  not  want  to,  but  did  not  dare  to  refuse.  He 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths^  65 

rubbed  her  back,  and  then  struck  her  with  the  great  stone  and 
cut  her  in  two.  He  took  her  heart  and  brought  it  home.  His 
grandmother  said  to  him,  "You  are  the  only  grandson  I  have 
had  who  could  do  all  these  things  without  getting  hurt."  The 
young  man  staid  at  home  another  ten  days.  Then  his  grand 
mother  and  grandfather  fell  ill,  and  both  died  the  same  day. 
The  young  man  buried  them,  and  then  he  went  away,  and  no 
one  knows  where  he  went. 

5.   The  Search  for  Fire.1 

At  one  time  the  people  had  found  fire,  and  were  going  to 
use  it;  but  Thunder  (Wo'tomtomim  maidum)  wanted  to  take 
it  away  from  them,  as  he  desired  to  be  the  only  one  who 
should  have  fire.  He  thought  that  if  he  could  do  this,  he 
would  be  able  to  kill  all  the  people.  After  a  time  he  succeeded, 
and  carried  the  fire  home  with  him,  far  to  the  south.  He  put 
Wo'swosim  (a  small  bird)  to  guard  the  fire,  and  see  that  no 
one  should  steal  it.  Thunder  thought  that  people  would  die 
after  he  had  stolen  their  fire,  for  they  would  not  be  able  to 
cook  their  food ;  but  the  people  managed  to  get  along.  They 
ate  most  of  their  food  raw,  and  sometimes  got  To'yeskom  (an 
other  small  bird)  to  look  for  a  long  time  at  a  piece  of  meat; 
and  as  he  had  a  red  eye,  this  after  a  long  time  would  cook  the 
meat  almost  as  well  as  a  fire.  Only  the  chiefs  had  their  food 
cooked  in  this  way.  All  the  people  lived  together  in  a  big 
sweat-house.  The  house  was  as  big  as  a  mountain.  Among 
the  people  was  Lizard  (Pi'tsaka)  and  his  brother;  and  they 
were  always  the  first  in  the  morning  to  go  outside  and  sun 
themselves  on  the  roof  of  the  sweat-house.  One  morning  as 
they  lay  there  sunning  themselves,  they  looked  west,  toward 
the  Coast  Range,  and  saw  smoke.  They  called  to  all  the 
other  people,  saying  that  they  had  seen  smoke  far  away  to 
the  west.  The  people,  however,  would  not  believe  them;  and 
Coyote  came  out,  and  threw  a  lot  of  dirt  and  dust  over  the 
two.  One  of  the  other  people  did  not  like  this.  He  said  to 
Coyote,  "Why  do  you  trouble  people?  Why  don't  you  let 

1  Told  at  Genesee.     Compare  Curtin,  /.  c.,  p.  365;   Kroeber,  /.  c.,  p.  252. 
[May,  igo2.'\  5 


66       Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XV II, 

others  alone?  Why  don't  you  behave?  You  are  always  the 
first  to  start  a  quarrel.  You  always  want  to  kill  people  with 
out  any  reason."  Then  the  other  people  felt  sorry.  They 
asked  the  two  Lizards  about  what  they  had  seen,  and  asked 
them  to  point  out  the  smoke.  The  Lizards  did  so,  and  all 
could  see  the  thin  column  rising  up  far  to  the  west.  One  per 
son  said,  "How  shall  we  get  that  fire  back?  How  shall  we 
get  it  away  from  Thunder?  He  is  a  bad  man.  I  don't  know 
whether  we  had  better  try  to  get  it  or  not."  Then  the  chief 
said,  "The  best  one  among  you  had  better  try  to  get  it. 
Even  if  Thunder  is  a  bad  man,  we  must  try  to  get  the  fire. 
When  we  get  there,  I  don't  know  how  we  shall  get  in; 
but  the  one  who  is  the  best,  who  thinks  he  can  get  in,  let  him 
try."  Mouse,  Deer,  Dog,  and  Coyote  were  the  ones  who  were 
to  try,  but  all  the  other  people  went  too.  They  took  a  flute 
with  them,  for  they  meant  to  put  the  fire  in  it. 

They  travelled  a  long  time,  and  finally  reached  the  place 
where  the  fire  was.  They  were  within  a  little  distance  of 
Thunder's  house,  when  they  all  stopped  to  see  what  they 
would  do.  Wo'swosim,  who  was  supposed  to  guard  the  fire 
in  the  house,  began  to  sing,  "  I  am  the  man  who  never  sleeps. 
I  am  the  man  who  never  sleeps."  Thunder  had  paid  him  for 
his  work  in  beads,  and  he  wore  them  about  his  neck  and 
around  his  waist.  He  sat  on  the  top  of  the  sweat-house,  by 
the  smoke-hole.  After  a  while  Mouse  was  sent  up  to  try 
and  see  if  he  could  get  in.  He  crept  up  slowly  till  he  got  close 
to  Wo'swosim,  and  then  saw  that  his  eyes  were  shut.  He  was 
asleep,  in  spite  of  the  song  that  he  sang.  When  Mouse  saw 
that  the  watcher  was  asleep,  he  crawled  to  the  opening  and 
went  in.  Thunder  had  several  daughters,  and  they  were 
lying  there  asleep.  Mouse  stole  up  quietly,  and  untied  the 
waist-string  of  each  one's  apron,  so  that  should  the  alarm  be 
given,  and  they  jump  up,  these  aprons  or  skirts  would  fall  off, 
and  they  would  have  to  stop  to  fix  them.  This  done,  Mouse 
took  the  flute,  filled  it  with  fire,  then  crept  out,  and  rejoined 
the  other  people  who  were  waiting  outside.  Some  of  the  fire 
was  taken  out  and  put  in  Dog's  ear,  the  remainder  in  the  flute 
being  given  to  the  swiftest  runner  to  carry.  Deer,  however, 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  67 

took  a  little,  which  he  carried  on  the  hock  of  his  leg,  where  to 
day  there  is  a  reddish  spot.  For  a  while  all  went  well,  but 
when  they  were  about  halfway  back,  Thunder  woke  up,  sus 
pected  that  something  was  wrong,  and  asked,  "What  is  the 
matter  with  my  fire?"  Then  he  jumped  up  with  a  roar  of 
thunder,  and  his  daughters  were  thus  awakened,  and  also 
jumped  up ;  but  their  aprons  fell  off  as  they  did  so,  and  they 
had  to  sit  down  again  to  put  them  on.  After  they  were  all 
ready,  they  went  out  with  Thunder  to  give  chase.  They 
carried  with  them  a  heavy  wind  and  a  great  rain  and  a  hail 
storm,  so  that  they  might  put  out  any  fire  the  people  had. 
Thunder  and  his  daughters  hurried  along,  and  soon  caught 
up  with  the  fugitives,  and  were  about  to  catch  them,  when 
Skunk  shot  at  Thunder  and  killed  him.  Then  Skunk  called 
out,  "After  this  you  must  never  try  to  follow  and  kill  people. 
You  must  stay  up  in  the  sky,  and  be  the  thunder.  That  is 
what  you  will  be."  The  daughters  of  Thunder  did  not  follow 
any  farther ;  so  the  people  went  on  safely,  and  got  home  with 
their  fire,  and  people  have  had  it  ever  since. 

6.  Thunder  and  his  Daughter.1 

Thunder  (Wo'tomtomiwaisi'm)  had  a  daughter  (Wotom- 
tomim  mopom).  She  was  very  beautiful,  and  went  about 
luring  young  men  to  destruction  by  inducing  them  to  follow 
her.  She  lived  far  to  the  east.  Two  brothers  were  living  in 
the  middle  of  a  valley.  The  two  were  sitting  on  the  top  of 
the  house,  singing.  The  older  of  the  two  was  Pitmi'lussi,  and 
he  had  arrows.  Thunder's  daughter  came  along,  and  Pit 
mi'lussi,  seeing  her,  said,  "I  am  going  to  follow  her."  The 
mother  and  father  of  the  two  brothers  were  inside,  and,  hear 
ing  what  he  had  said,  called  out,  "  No,  she  is  not  good.  Let 
her  go."  But  Pitmi'lussi  replied,  "She  looks  like  a  beautiful 
girl;  I  am  going  to  follow  her."  The  parents  tried  to  dis 
suade  him,  but  failed,  and  he  set  out.  He  took  one  of  his 
arrows,  and  shot  it  so  that  it  fell  ahead  of  the  girl,  and  stuck 
in  the  ground.  She  had  a  pack-basket  filled  with  ice  on  her 

1  Told  at  Genesee.  Compare  Curtin,  /.  c.,  pp.  145  et  seq.;  Teit,  /.  c.,  pp.  39  et 
seq.;  Burns,  /.  c.,  pp.  397  et  seq. 


68      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

back,  and,  picking  up  the  arrow,  put  it  into  the  basket  and  said, 
"I  think  I  shall  have  an  arrow  to  take  to  my  brother."  If 
any  man  shot  an  arrow  in  this  way,  and  could  not  succeed  in 
getting  it  out  of  the  basket,  he  was  sure  to  die.  Pitmi'lussi, 
after  shooting  the  arrow,  hurried  on,  and  caught  up  with  the 
girl.  He  put  his  hand  underneath  the  basket  and  pulled  his 
arrow  out,  thus  getting  the  best  of  the  girl.  Thunder  was 
watching  what  had  been  going  on,  and  as  soon  as  Pitmi'lussi 
got  the  better  of  the  daughter,  it  thundered;  and  Thunder 
called  out,  "  Some  one  has  the  best  of  us  "  ("  Mino'doko  niki' "). 
By  and  by  the  girl  came  to  a  large  patch  of  wild  roses :  they 
grew  very  thickly,  and  had  many  thorns.  She  walked 
through  them,  however;  and  as  she  walked,  the  roses  closed 
up  behind  her,  and  left  no  trace  of  a  path.  The  young  man, 
however,  had  with  him  a  piece  of  flint,  and,  placing  it  on  the 
ground,  he  said,  "You  must  cut  me  a  path."  It  did  so,  and, 
cutting  from  side  to  side,  it  cut  a  path  for  him,  through  which 
he  walked,  and  followed  the  girl.  So  he  got  through,  and 
again  it  thundered. 

Next  the  girl  came  to  a  place  where  there  were  a  great  num 
ber  of  rattlesnakes,  and  passed  through  them  all  safely.  Pit 
mi'lussi,  as  he  followed  behind,  put  on  his  stone  moccasins, 
which  reached  up  to  his  waist.  These  stone  moccasins  were 
red-hot,  and  so  he  was  able  to  walk  through  the  snakes  in 
safety.  Then  it  thundered  again.  Pitmi'lussi  then  said  to 
himself,  "Hurry  up  and  come,  night:  I  wish  to  sleep  with 
this  woman"  ("Ku'lulelep  kii'lekan  ni'kl  tu'yihakas ") ,  and 
instantly  it  was  night.  Always  before,  the  woman  had  been 
able  to  go  through  the  day  without  the  man  who  was  following 
her  being  able  to  keep  up.  The  girl  made  camp,  and  he  staid 
with  her  for  the  night.  While  they  were  sitting  there,  she 
brought  on  a  great  storm,  and  Pitmi'lussi  went  off  to  get  some 
wood.  When  he  did  so,  his  brother  immediately  was  with 
him,  and  began  to  help  him.  The  storm  put  out  the  fire,  and 
made  things  very  uncomfortable.  Near  the  camp  was  a  huge 
tree,  and  in  it  was  a  hole  through  which  the  woman  could 
crawl.  She  crawled  in,  and  put  her  basket,  which  was  full  of 
ice,  over  the  opening.  The  two  brothers  were  outside  by  the 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  69 

fire,  talking.  The  younger  brother  said,  "I'd  better  go  in 
and  sleep  with  her  there."  The  older  said,  "No,  that  will  be 
bad.  I'd  better  go."  To  this  the  younger  agreed.  He 
seized  the  ice-basket,  and,  although  it  was  so  slippery  that 
no  one  else  could  hold  it,  he  pulled  it  out  through  the  hole,  and 
crept  in.  Deinde  cum  ea  ludere  incipiebat;  cumque  vaginam 
ejus  dentibus  crotali  circumda.tam  sentiret,1  silice  arrepto 
omnes  abscidit  sustulitve.  In  the  morning  the  girl  had  a 
child.  Again  it  thundered. 

She  came  out,  and  after  eating  proceeded  on  her  way.  She 
came  soon  to  a  great  pond,  or  river,  covered  with  ice  so 
slippery  that  no  one  could  stand  on  it.  She  passed  over 
easily,  however;  and  when  Pitmi'lussi  came,  he  again  put  on 
his  stone  moccasins,  and  with  these  walked  over  easily,  melt 
ing  the  ice  with  the  red-hot  shoes.  Then  it  thundered.  Next 
the  girl  led  him  to  a  great  river,  very  broad,  but  shallow  near 
the  edge.  As  he  went  farther  in,  it  grew  deeper  and  deeper. 
The  water  was  up  to  his  nose.  Pitmi'lussi  had  a  piece  of 
feather  of  a  duck  (Wa'tko).  His  spirits  told  him  to  stick  this 
in  his  hair.  He  did  so,  and  at  once  the  feather  began  to  call 
out,  "  At-at-at-at ! "  and  the  water  at  once  began  to  go  down 
and  grow  shallower,  and  thus  he  got  across.2 

Next  the  girl  led  him  through  the  Valley  of  Old  Age,  in  which 
people  died  of  old  age  before  they  could  pass  through  (Ne'no- 
wonokongkoyo).  He  travelled  and  travelled,  following  the 
girl,  till  it  seemed  as  if  he  never  would  get  through.  He  be 
gan  to  grow  gray,  then  white,  became  weak.  Then  his  spirits 
said  to  him,  "  Stick  that  feather  of  the  Atataim  bird  (si'lSpam) 
in  your  hair. ' '  He  did  so.  At  once  the  duck-feather  cried, ' '  At- 
at-at-at!"  and  he  became  young  again,  and  got  to  the  other 
end  of  the  valley.  Beyond  this  Valley  of  Old  Age  was  a  great 
sweat-house  which  belonged  to  Thunder.  It  was  all  of  solid 
ice,  and  lay  far  in  the  east.  The  girl  was  some  ways  ahead 
when  she  reached  the  sweat-house,  and  she  walked  easily  up 
to  the  top,  carrying  the  child,  and  entered  through  the  smoke- 
hole.  When  Pitmi'lussi  reached  the  house,  he  put  on  his 

1  Compare  Boas,  /.  c.,  pp.  24,  30,  66;  Farrand,  Chilcotin,  p.  13. 

2  Another  account  has  it  that  he  made  a  raft  of  the  feather. 


7O      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

stone  moccasins,  and,  walking  easily  up,  entered,  and  sat 
down  beside  his  wife.  Then  it  thundered  again. 

Thunder  then  ordered  the  woman  to  give  Pitmi'lussi  some 
thing  to  eat.  She  did  so,  and  he  ate  readily.  It  was  poison, 
but  it  did  not  harm  him.  Then  it  thundered.  It  was  nearly 
night,  and  Thunder  said  to  his  son-in-law,  "There  is  a  large 
pitch-log  out  there.  You  had  better  go  out  and  get  some  for 
kindling  for  the  morning."  Pitmi'lussi  went  out,  and  found 
the  log.  It  was  very  solid  and  hard,  and  he  had  no  axe.  Un 
less  a  man  could  break  off  a  piece  with  his  hands,  he  would 
die,  and  all  about  the  log  were  the  bones  of  those  who  had 
failed.  Pitmi'lussi  thought  a  while,  then  talked  with  his 
spirits,  who  told  him  what  to  do.  He  took  the  log  up,  and 
smashed  it  against  the  ground,  thus  breaking  it  to  pieces.  He 
gathered  up  an  armful,  and  came  in  with  it.  Then  it  thun 
dered. 

In  the  morning  Thunder  told  Pitmi'lussi  to  go  down  to  the 
river  and  spear  some  fish;  he  told  him  where  to  go,  and  to 
watch,  for  there  were  several  kinds  of  fish.  If  one  came 
along  wearing  bead  earrings,  he  was  not  to  spear  it;  but  if 
one  came  along  wearing  buckskin  earrings,  this  was  the  one  to 
spear.  He  went  and  waited.  By  and  by  the  fish  with  buck 
skin  earrings  came  along,  and  he  speared  it.  The  fish  could 
not  get  loose,  and  Pitmi'lussi  could  not  land  it,  and  they  had 
a  great  struggle,  the  fish  gaining  all  the  time,  for  Pitmi'lussi 
could  not  let  go  of  the  spear.  The  fish  was  pulling  him  under 
the  water,  when  he  called  on  his  spirits.  Immediately  he  saw 
some  water-ousels  (Tse'ktsakho) ;  and  these,  diving  down 
under  the  fish,  pushed  it  up  toward  the  surface,  and  Pitmi' 
lussi  began  to  get  the  best  of  it.  Finally,  with  the  help  of  the 
water-ousels,  he  got  the  fish  ashore,  and  carried  it  to  the 
house.  Then  it  thundered. 

The  next  morning  Thunder  sent  his  son-in-law  out  on  a 
deer-hunt.  He  told  him  where  to  go.  He  went,  and  found 
no  deer;  but  a  huge  grisly  bear  was  there,  and  jumped  out 
at  him.  He  kept  shooting  at  the  grisly,  but  could  not  kill  it. 
The  bear  came  up  very  close  to  the  man,  so  close  that  he 
could  not  get  his  arrows  out  of  the  quiver,  so  he  turned  and 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths. 


ran.  The  grisly  bear  time  and  again  almost  caught  him,  but 
always  failed  at  the  last  moment.  It  chased  Pitmi'lussi  for 
half  a  day.  They  came  at  length  to  the  top  of  a  high  moun 
tain  ;  and  as  Pitmi'lussi  looked  down  to  see  where  he  was  going 
to  run  to,  he  saw  a  huge  tree  (Tsu'militim  tsa)  all  made  of  ice, 
made  for  him  by  his  spirits.  It  was  swaying  back  and  forth, 
back  and  forth,  bending  far  down  on  this  side,  and  then  on 
that.  As  he  went  down  the  mountain  toward  the  tree,  he 
gained  on  the  bear,  and  when  he  reached  it  he  was  a  little 
ahead.  As  he  reached  it,  the  top  came  down  to  the  ground  at 
his  feet  in  one  of  its  swayings;  he  caught  it,  and  was  swung 
up  by  it  high  in  the  air,  where  the  tree  then  remained 
stationary.  The  grisly  came  up,  and  tried  to  climb  the 
tree,  but  could  not,  as  it  was  all  ice  and  very  slippery.  Find 
ing  he  could  not  climb,  the  bear  lay  down  at  the  foot  of  the 
tree  to  wait  till  the  man  should  come  down.  The  bear  could 
not  be  killed  unless  he  was  hit  in  the  left  hind-foot,1  but  Pit 
mi'lussi  did  not  know  this.  From  the  top  of  the  tree  he  shot 
at  the  bear  many  times,  and  put  many  arrows  in  the  bear's 
body,  but  without  killing  it  or  troubling  it  at  all.  He  had 
shot  all  his  arrows  away  but  one.  He  kept  this  for  some  time, 
and  talked  to  his  spirits,  who  told  him  where  to  shoot  in 
order  to  kill  the  bear.  He  could  not,  however,  hit  the  bear's 
left  hind-foot,  as  the  bear  was  lying  so  that  it  was  under  it. 
So  Pitmi'lussi  began  to  talk  to  the  gophers,  and  told  them  to 
work  under  the  bear,  and  gently  to  shove  out  the  foot  that  he 
wanted  to  hit.  They  did  so,  and  he  shot  the  bear  and  killed 
it.  Then  it  thundered. 

Then  he  came  down  from  the  tree,  went  back  to  the  house, 
got  his  wife,  and  went  home.  If  Pitmi'lussi  had  not  overcome 
him,  Thunder  would  have  gone  on  killing  people.  Now  Pit 
mi'lussi  put  an  end  to  it.  He  won  back  all  his  people. 

7.   The  Loon-Woman* 

A  Loon  (Ko'wokongkule)  lived  in  a  great  sweat-house  far 
to  the  north,  with  a  great  many  other  people  who  were  her 

1  See  Boas,  Tillamook,  p.  38";  Kathlamet  Texts,  p.  10. 

2  Told  at  Genesee.     Compare  Curtin,  /.  c.,  p.  407  seq.    The  Pit  River  Indians  have 
nearly  the  same  story. 


72       Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

brothers.  She  had  a  sister,  Eagle  (Ka'kangkule1).  They  were 
the  only  two  women  in  the  sweat-house.  The  house  was 
on  the  edge  of  a  great  lake,  and  had  its  door  to  the  north.  To 
the  north  of  the  house  was  the  lake  for  the  people  to  bathe 
in.  Loon  went  to  the  lake,  and  found  in  the  water  a  great 
quantity  of  hairs  that  her  brothers  had  lost.  She  pulled  out 
some  of  hers  to  see  how  long  her  brothers'  hairs  were,  com 
pared  to  her  own.  Next  day  she  did  the  same  thing,  taking 
a  hair  from  each  man.  She  found  her  hair  was  the  longest. 
She  wanted  to  find  one  of  the  same  length.  There  was  one 
man  in  the  sweat-house  who  took  a  bath  every  two  days, 
instead  of  every  day  as  did  the  others.  Loon  was  in  love 
with  him,  and  wanted  to  marry  him.  The  following  day  this 
man  was  in  the  crowd  who  went  in  bathing.  She  collected 
the  hairs  again,  measured  them  all,  and  found  one  which  was 
just  as  long  as  hers.  Next  day  she  waited  for  them  all  to 
go  in  bathing  again,  then,  painting  herself  with  charcoal,  she 
lay  down  in  the  trail  along  which  they  would  all  come  back. 
All  her  brothers  and  cousins  came  by,  but  paid  no  attention 
to  her.  Coyote  was  among  them,  however,  and  he  staid 
behind  and  took  possession  of  her.  After  he  had  gone  away, 
she  came  to  the  house  and  called  Wood-Bug  (Tsa/nkupS). 
He  was  the  prettiest  of  all.  She  stood  by  the  door  of  the 
house  and  called  out,  "Come  on,  my  husband,  let  us  go!" 
Now,  the  chief  in  the  house  was  So'kotim  maidii,  and  he  said 
to  the  Wood-Bug  and  to  Coyote,  "Which  of  you  did  this?" 
Then  he  said  to  Coyote,  "You  go."  When  Coyote  went  out, 
the  woman  said,  "I  don't  want  you,  I  want  my  husband." 
The  chief  sent  out  another  man;  and  Loon  said,  "No,  you 
are  not  the  one.  If  you  don't  send  out  the  right  one,  the 
house  will  burn  up."  Then  she  went  off  a  little  way  and 
began  to  sing,  telling  the  one  she  wanted  to  come  out.  As 
she  sang,  flames  of  fire  would  run  from  her  toward  the  house, 
but  would  die  out  and  disappear  before  they  reached  it.  The 
chief  kept  sending  one  man  after  another,  till  there  were  only 
two  or  three  left,  the  one  she  wanted  among  them.  The  chief 
then  asked  Spider  to  make  him  a  net.  The  house  seemed  to 
be  catching  fire  from  the  flames  which  the  woman  caused. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  73 

She  called  out,  "Hurry  up,  send  out  my  husband,  or  the  Sun 
will  overcome  me,  and  burn  the  house."  The  chief  sent  out 
the  last  one  except  the  one  she  wanted,  and  then  dressed  up 
this  one,  giving  him,  before  he  sent  him  out,  something  which 
would  prevent  him  from  having  any  connection  with  the 
woman.  The  chief  said  to  Spider,  "Hurry  up,  make  that 
net! "  Before  the  man  that  she  wanted  came  out,  the  woman 
was  singing  loudly,  and  turning  slowly  round  and  round,  and 
the  fire  would  dart  out  almost  to  the  house.  When  the  one 
she  wanted  came  out,  she  seized  him  and  went  off.  The  sun 
was  already  sinking,  but  she  looked  at  it,  and  made  it  go 
down  at  once,  so  that  it  was  night. 

The  man  lighted  a  fire,  brought  in  boughs  and  stuff  for  a 
bed,  and  laid  a  log  along  each  side  of  where  they  were  going 
to  sleep.  Loon  said,  "  Hurry  up  and  finish  the  bed,  it  is  time 
to  sleep."  It  was  not  yet  time  to  go  to  bed,  but  the  woman 
was  in  a  hurry.  She  could  not  wait,  but  pulled  the  man 
down  on  the  bed.  Then  she  said,  "I  am  going  to  conquer 
this  country.  I  will  make  a  good  country  of  it."  Nee  tamen 
prae  glande  peni  a  magistro  vici  imposito  cum  ea  poterat  coire. 
The  woman  said,  "  People  here  can  say  by  and  by  that  I  went 
crazy  and  married  my  brother  long  ago.  Even  if  they  do  not 
overcome  me  in  this  world,  people  from  now  on  will  go  crazy." 
Before  morning  she  fell  asleep  from  fatigue.  The  man  then 
gently  took  one  of  the  logs,  rolled  it  on  the  woman,  and  him~ 
self  crawled  off,  then  went  away  to  the  house  they  had  left. 
By  this  time  Spider  had  made  the  great  net ;  and  Wood-Bug 
with  all  the  rest  of  the  people  got  into  it,  and  all  were  drawn 
up  into  the  sky,  so  that  Loon  could  not  get  at  them  again. 

When  Loon  woke  up,  she  found  the  log  instead  of  the  man. 
She  gave  a  great  yell,  and  started  to  hunt  for  him,  running 
along  with  the  fire  darting  out  in  great  tongues  before  her. 
As  she  came  close  to  the  sweat-house,  she  saw  it  was  in  flames, 
and  said,  "When  people  talk  of  these  things  hereafter,  they 
can  say  that  I  went  crazy.  Because  of  this,  other  people  will 
go  crazy."  The  woman's  sister,  Eagle,  followed  the  others 
who  were  drawn  up  to  the  sky,  saying,  "  I  will  go  up  too,  and 
watch  over  my  brothers."  When  Loon  saw  that  the  house 


74      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

was  completely  burned  and  the  r^eople  all  gone,  she  gave  a 
loud  cry  and  fell  down  dead.  By  and  by,  however,  she  came 
to  life  again,  and  went  down  to  the  lake,  where  there  were 
many  willows.  She  broke  off  several  and  went  back  to  the 
place  where  she  had  fallen  when  she  saw  all  the  people  had 
gone.  She  wove  the  willows  into  a  scoop  or  seed-beater. 

When  the  people  had  got  into  the  net  to  be  drawn  up,  Liz 
ard  was  the  first  in,  and  was  at  the  bottom.  He  could  see  a 
little  through  the  bottom  of  the  net,  and  saw  all  that  Loon 
was  doing.  He  said  to  the  rest,  "I  will  look  back  and  see 
what  is  going  on.  I  am  sorry  for  my  sister."  So  he  took  his 
finger  and  made  the  opening  a  little  larger  in  order  to  see 
better;  but  as  soon  as  he  did  so,  the  net  tore,  and  all  fell 
down,  right  into  the  midst  of  the  blazing  sweat-house.  There 
their  hearts  began  to  burst  from  the  heat,  and  to  fly  out 
through  the  air.  Lizard's  was  the  first.  Loon  saw  it  flying 
up,  and  caught  it  with  her  scoop.  Another  flew  up,  which 
she  caught  in  the  same  way.  The  third  she  tried  for  she 
missed,  and  instantly  fell  dead.  By  and  by  she  came  to 
again.  She  missed  the  hearts  of  all  the  best  ones.  All  this 
time  Eagle  was  circling  about  in  the  sky  overhead,  watching 
where  the  hearts  fell.  She  said  to  herself,  "Into  whatever 
valley  they  drop,  on  whatever  mountain  they  fall,  I  shall  find 
them."  For  a  long  time  the  heart  of  Loon's  husband  did  not 
burst.  Finally  it  did,  however,  and  she  missed  it.  Then  she 
fainted  again.  When  she  came  to,  she  went  to  the  pile  of 
hearts  she  had  caught  to  look  at  them,  and,  on  finding  that 
she  had  lost  all  the  best  ones,  fainted  again.  Then  she  came 
to  once  more,  and  strung  the  hearts  she  had  on  a  string  for 
a  necklace.  She  then  went  away  to  the  north,  and  finally 
came  to  a  lake.  She  jumped  into  it  with  the  string  of  hearts 
on,  saying,  "  People  can  say,  when  they  speak  of  these  things, 
that  in  the  long  ago  Loon  jumped  into  a  lake  with  her  brothers' 
hearts.  She  was  crazy  when  she  did  it." 

About  this  time  Eagle  began  to  hunt  for  the  hearts  that 
had  flown  away.  She  found  all  but  two,  those  of  the  best 
men  of  all.  She  went  farther  to  the  north.  Here  she  came 
to  the  grandmother  of  Water- Ousel.  She  spent  the  night 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  75 

with  her,  and  asked  if  she  had  seen  or  heard  anything.  She 
and  her  children  lived  on  the  edge  of  a  lake,  and  used  to  go 
there  to  shoot  ducks.  They  said,  "Yes,  when  we  go  to  get 
ducks,  we  see  something  wearing  a  necklace  of  hearts  swim 
ming  by."  They  told  Eagle  where  it  started  from, — a  great 
rock  on  the  north  side  of  the  lake,  whence  it  would  come  with 
a  loud  cry.  Eagle  wanted  them  to  kill  this  person,  and  said, 
"I  left  my  bow  and  arrows  behind,  with  all  the  things  that 
my  brothers  left.  I  will  go  and  get  them,  and  then  you  can 
kill  this  thing."  She  went  back,  therefore,  to  the  sweat- 
house,  found  a  bow  and  arrows,  and  came  back.  She  was 
singing  all  the  time,  as  she  thought  that  she  was  going  to  get 
the  hearts  back.  She  gave  Water-Ousel  the  best  arrows,  and 
they  went  down  by  daylight  to  look  for  the  thing.  While 
they  were  there,  they  heard  it  cry  and  saw  it  swimming. 
When  Loon  drew  near,  she  was  looking  at  herself  in  the  water, 
and  did  not  see  them.  They  both  shot  at  the  same  time; 
and  at  once  Loon  dived,  and  did  not  come  up  for  ha.lf  a-  day. 
They  shot  at  daybreak,  and  she  did  not  come  up  till  noon, 
but  then  she  came  up  dead.  They  brought  her  ashore,  and 
then  called  Eagle.  She  said,  "People  will  call  you  Loon. 
You  will  never  be  able  to  harm  people  again.  You  will  be  a 
bird  that  can  be  killed.  People  will  say,  "In  the  olden  time 
Loon  went  crazy,  and  had  her  brothers'  hearts,  and  was 
killed."  Then  Eagle  started  back. 

When  she  arrived  at  the  place  where  the  house  had  been, 
she  threw  the  hearts  into  the  lake  where  the  people  used 
to  bathe.  Next  morning  all  the  people  had  come  to  life,  and 
came  up  out  of  the  lake.  Then  Eagle  left  for  the  north  again, 
to  find  the  two  hearts  that  were  still  missing.  There  was  a 
woman  living  there  who  had  two  daughters.  She  was  pound 
ing  acorns,  and  the  daughters  had  gone  for  wood.  They 
heard  something  singing  beautifully,  and  followed  the  sound 
to  find  out  what  it  was.  Following  along  a  'small  stream, 
they  came  to  a  deer-lick,  where  there  were  a  great  many  deer- 
tracks.  It  was  to  this  spot  that  the  two  missing  hearts  had 
flown.  They  were  crying,  and  it  was  their  tears  that  made 
the  salt-lick.  The  girls  saw  the  tips  of  the  hearts  sticking  up 


76      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

out  of  the  ground.  The  girls  at  once  made  some  digging- 
sticks,  and  began  to  dig  up  the  hearts,  forgetting  all  about 
the  wood  they  had  gone  for.  Finally  they  dug  them  up,  and 
started  for  home,  each  carrying  one.  When  they  got  there, 
they  covered  them  with  their  blankets,  and  went  to  bed.  In 
the  morning  the  hearts  had  come  to  life,  and  married  the  two 
girls.  One  of  these  was  Wood-Bug,  the  other  Fisher  (Inbu- 
kim). 

By  this  time  Eagle  reached  the  place  where  they  were  liv 
ing.  She  said,  "When  people  die,  it  will  only  be  necessary 
to  put  them  in  the  water,  and  in  the  morning  they  will  be 
alive  again.  If  we  are  beaten  on  this  point,  people  will  have 
to  die  and  not  come  to  again.  If  we  get  beaten,  we  shall  have 
to  be  what  we  are."  When  she  found  that  the  two  hearts 
had  come  to  life,  she  left  them  there,  and  went  back  to  where 
the  sweat-house  used  to  be.  She  was  going  to  stay  there  to 
hear  what  the  others  would  do.  •  She  said,  "  If  we  get  beaten, 
the  sweat-house  will  turn  into  a  mountain,  and  we  will  scatter. 
They  staid  there  then  to  see  what  would  happen. 

8.  Sun  and  Moon.1 

i.  Far  to  the  north  Sun  (E'kim  po'ko)  had  built  a  big 
house  of  ice.  The  house  was  as  large  as  a  mountain,  and  no 
one  could  climb  up  and  get  in.  Sun  could  therefore  kill  people 
and  steal  them.  She  thought  she  would  live  forever.  From 
the  house  she  started  and  went  north.  She  found  a  Frog 
(We'lketi  kullokbe'),  who  had  three  children.  She  stole  one 
without  the  mother  knowing  it,  and  carried  it  home.  The 
old  Frog  hunted  everywhere  for  her  child,  but  could  not  find 
it.  Two  days  after  this,  Sun  went  again  to  the  north,  to  the 
place  where  Frog  lived,  and  stole  another  child.  Frog  missed 
her  child,  and  tried  to  find  it,  but  could  not.  She  tried  to 
think  how  she  had  lost  it,  but  could  not  solve  the  mystery. 
Sun  meanwhile  waited  and  waited,  and  thought  how  she 

1  Told  at  Genesee. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  77 

could  get  the  third  child.  She  waited  ten  days,  then  said, 
"If  I  start  this  time,  I'll  go  straight  to  the  house."  She  did 
so.  Frog  was  sitting  on  the  east  side  of  the  house,  making  a 
pack-basket.  Sun  went  in  and  sat  down  on  the  west  side; 
and,  the  door  of  the  house  being  to  the  north,  she  planned  to 
take  the  child  off  to  the  east,  and  so  around  to  her  house. 
Frog  had  three  pieces  of  grass  and  three  pieces  of  willow  in 
her  mouth,  out  of  which  she  was  making  the  basket.  Sun 
said,  "Why  are  you  sitting  here  in  this  lonely  place?"  Frog 
asked  the  same  question,  suspecting  that  this  was  the  person 
who  had  been  taking  off  her  children.  Sun  replied,  "I'm 
travelling  about  because  I  am  lonesome.  I  am  harmless." 
Frog  thought  to  herself,  "That  is  always  the  way  that  you 
talk,  you  think  that  no  one  knows  anything  about  you." 
Pretty  soon  Sun  said,  "I  am  going  now.  I  am  going  to  see 
what  sort  of  a  country  I  can  find  near  here."  At  this  mo 
ment  the  last  of  Frog's  three  children  went  outside  to  play. 
As  Sun  went  out,  she  seized  the  child,  and  ran  off  at  once  to 
her  own  home.  She  made  a  patch  of  willow  (Tsu'pim)  grow 
up  behind  her,  so  fine  that  any  one  who  followed  would  stop 
to  pick  some.  The  old  woman  ran  after  Sun;  but  when  she 
came  to  the  willow-patch,  she  stopped  to  pick  some,  and 
forgot  all  about  what  she  had  gone  for.  By  and  by  she  re 
membered,  however,  and  ran  on.  She  nearly  caught  up  with 
Sun,  who  just  succeeded  in  getting  into  her  house  before  she 
could  seize  her.  Frog  tried  to  climb  up  the  side  of  the  house, 
but  could  not  do  it,  for  she  slipped  and  fell  back  after  getting 
only  halfway  up.  She  tried  again  and  again,  and  after  many 
trials  succeeded  in  reaching  the  top.  She  called  to  Sun,  "  This 
is  what  you  have  been  planning  out  to  do,  is  it?  What  are 
you  going  to  do  now?  Do  you  think  you  are  going  to  be 
killed  by  me,  or  are  you  going  to  kill  me  as  well  as  my  chil 
dren?  What  day  did  you  think  you  would  see  me?  Come 
up  here  and  let  us  see  if  you  are  the  sort  that  cannot  be 
killed?"  Sun  said,  "What  can  you  do  to  me?"  Frog 
showed  her  her  mouth,  and  said,  "Come  up,  and  you  will  see 
what  I  can  do."  Sun  started  up;  and  as  she  came  up  out  of 
the  entrance,  Frog  swallowed  her  quick  as  a  flash.  Then  she 


78      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

crawled  away  to  one  side,  and  lay  there  a  long  time,  thinking, 
wondering  what  Sun  would  do.  Soon  she  began  to  feel  Sun 
moving  about  inside  of  her,  beginning  to  swell,  and  grow 
larger  and  larger.  Thought  she,  "If  Sun  keeps  on  growing 
larger  and  larger,  and  in  this  way  conquers  me,  there  will  be 
people  in  this  world  who  will  steal."  Before  long  Sun  had 
grown  so  much  that  part  protruded  from  Frog's  mouth,  and, 
continuing  to  grow,  she  finally  burst  Frog  in  two,  and  killed 
her.  Then  she  said,  "  If  people  find  others  stealing,  they  can 
follow  them  and  kill  them."  Then  she  said  to  Frog,  "You 
can  be  a  Frog,  and  live  in  the  water.  Let  people  alone.  I 
will  be  the  Sun.  We  will  neither  of  us  harm  people."  Then 
she  spoke  to  her  brother,  Moon,  and  asked,  "Do  you  wish  to 
be  Moon  or  Sun,  to  travel  by  day  or  by  night?"  Moon  re 
plied,  "You  try  travelling  at  night."  So  Sun  tried  it ;  but  the 
Stars  all  fell  in  love  with  her,  and  she  could  not  travel  because 
of  their  attractions.  The  Pleiades  started  to  follow  her,  but 
she  saw  them,  and  they  stopped.  When  she  found  she  could 
not  travel,  she  went  back,  and  told  her  brother  that  he  must 
go  by  night.  This  he  agreed  to,  and  has  kept  it  up  ever  since. 

2.  Sun  and  Moon  were  sister  and  brother.  They  did  not 
rise  at  first.  Many  different  animals  were  -sent  to  try  and 
see  if  they  could  make  the  two  rise,  but  failed.  None  of  them 
could  get  into  the  house  in  which  the  brother  and  sister  lived. 
This  house  was  of  solid  stone,  and  was  far  away  to  the  east. 
At  last  Gopher  and  Angle- Worm  went.  Angle- Worm  made 
a  tiny  hole,  boring  down  outside,  and  coming  up  inside  the 
house.  Gopher  followed,  carrying  a  bag  of  fleas.  He  opened 
it,  and  let  half  of  the  fleas  out.  They  bit  the  brother  and 
sister  so,  that  they  moved  from  the  floor  where  they  were  to 
the  sleeping-platform.  Then  Gopher  let  out  the  rest  of  the 
fleas,  and  these  made  life  so  miserable  for  Sun  and  Moon,  that 
they  decided  to  leave  the  house.  The  sister  was  v  afraid  to 
travel  by  night,  so  the  brother  said  he  would  go  then,  and 
became  the  Moon.  The  sister  travelled  by  day,  and  became 
the  Sun.1 

1  Told  at  Mooretown,  Butte  County. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  79 

p.  Bear  and  Deer.1 

Bear  and  Deer  once  lived  together.  Each  had  two 
children  who  played  together  all  the  time.  Deer  used  to  go 
off  to  gather  clover,  and  one  day  Bear  planned  to  kill  her  and 
eat  her.  Deer  had  told  her  children  that  day  that  if  she  did 
not  come  back,  it  would  be  because  Bear  had  killed  her. 
When  Bear  came  home  alone  that  night,  the  two  children 
suspected  that  something  was  wrong.  Bear  said  that  Deer 
had  gone  away  somewhere.  That  night,  however,  the  two 
little  Deer  looked  in  Bear's  basket  of  clover,  and  saw  some  of 
their  mother's  flesh. 

Next  day  the  two  Deer  and  the  two  Bears  were  playing  to 
gether.  They  built  a  camp  and  sweat-house.  The  two  Deer 
went  in  first,  and  told  the  Bears  to  fan  the  smoke  into  the 
sweat-house,  and  that  when  it  got  too  strong,  they  would  call 
out  to  stop,  and  let  them  out.  The  Bears  did  as  told,  and 
after  the  Deer  had  come  out,  went  in  themselves.  When 
they  came  out,  the  Deer  went  in  again,  and  then  the  Bears; 
but  this  time  the  Deer  did  not  stop  when  the  Bears  called  out, 
and  in  this  way  smothered  and  killed  them.  Coming  back  to 
the  house  where  Bear  was,  they  told  her  that  the  two  little 
Bears  were  still  playing.  Then  collecting  a  quantity  of  a  sort 
of  herb  with  berries  on  it,  they  shot  it  all  about,  and  then  ran 
off  to  the  north,  toward  Big  Meadows. 

Bear  could  not  find  her  children  for  a  long  time,  but  at  last 
discovered  them  dead  in  the  sweat-house.  She  at  once  called 
after  the  two  Deer;  but  the  herbs  answered  for  them,  and 
she  went  now  here,  now  there,  in  vain.  At  last  she  found 
their  trail,  however;  and  near  the  edge  of  Big  Meadows  she 
came  up  with  them.  The  two  Deer  saw  a  huge  rock  near  by, 
and,  jumping  to  the  top  of  it,  told  it  to  stretch.  It  did  so, 
and  rose  up  as  high  as  a  small  tree.  Bear  asked  how  to  get  up. 
The  boy  answered,  and  said  he  would  help  Bear  up  with  the 
aid  of  the  string  of  his  sister's  apron.  When  he  let  it  down, 
he  said,  "When  you  get  nearly  up,  shut  your  eyes  and  open 

1  Told  at  Genesee.  Compare  Teit,  /.  c.,  p.  69;  Boas,  /.  c.,  p.  81;  Powers,  /.  c.,  p. 
341  et  seq.;  Gatschet,  /.  c.,  pp.  118  et  seq.;  Boas,  Kathlamet  Texts,  pp. 118  et  seq.;  Cur- 
tin,  /.  c.,  p.  456. 


8o      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

your  mouth,  for  I  can't  pull  you  up  otherwise."  Bear  did  as 
she  was  told,  and  just  then  the  sister  threw  a  red-hot  rock 
into  Bear's  mouth,  and  the  brother  let  Bear  fall.  Then  the 
rock  decreased  in  size  again,  the  Deer  jumped  off,  and  ran  on. 
By  and  by  Bear  recovered,  and  gave  chase.  The  two  Deer 
came  to  a  river  where  their  grandfather  Shitepoke  was  sitting 
and  fishing.  They  told  him  their  story,  and  asked  if  he 
would  help  them  across.  So  he  stretched  out  one  leg,  and 
they  crossed  the  river  on  it  as  a  bridge.  Then  Shitepoke  took 
them  to  his  house,  and  covered  them  with  a  blanket.  Soon 
Bear  came  along,  and  asked  Shitepoke  if  he  had  seen  the  two 
Deer.  He  said,  "No."  Bear  then  said,  "Their  mother  is 
looking  for  them  everywhere,  and  I  am  sent  to  bring  them 
home."  Then  Bear  asked  if  he  would  help  her  across.  Shite 
poke  agreed,  and  stretched  out  one  leg  for  her  to  cross  on. 
When  Bear  was  about  halfway  over,  he  bent  his  leg  and  pulled 
it  back,  so  that  Bear  fell  into  the  river  and  was  drowned.1 


There  was  once  a  Deer  who  had  two  children,  a  boy  and 
a  girl.  Near  them  lived  a  Bear  who  had  a  single  cub.  One 
day  the  mother  Deer  went  out  to  get  angle- worms.  She 
hung  a  small  brush  on  one  of  her  children,  and  said,  "If  any 
harm  should  happen  to  me,  the  brush  will  fall  off."  The 
Bear  cub  was  left  to  play  with  the  two  Deer.  While  the  Deer 
was  gathering  the  angle- worms,  the  Bear  was  in  a  rock-pile 
getting  snakes.  She  filled  her  basket,  and,  coming  along, 
met  the  Deer.  The  two  went  on  together  to  a  sand-bar  in 
the  river,  and  here  were  to  eat  their  dinner.  When  the  din 
ner  was  over,  the  Bear  said  to  the  Deer,  "You  have  lice  on 
your  head;  let  me  take  them  off  for  you."  For  a  long  time 
the  Deer  refused,  but  finally  agreed.  The  Bear  gradually 
worked  along  down  to  the  Deer's  neck,  then  suddenly  bit  her 
head  off  and  killed  her.  At  this  moment  the  brush  which 
the  Deer  had  tied  on  one  of  her  children  fell  off.  The  children 
knew  that  their  mother  had  been  killed,  so  they  jumped  at 
the  Bear  cub  and  killed  it.  They  buried  it,  first  taking  off 

1   Compare  Curtin,  /.  c.t  p.  450. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  8 1 

one  of  its  claws,  which  they  placed  in  a  comb  made  by  the 
yellow- jackets.  When  the  old  Bear  came  home,  the  children 
asked  where  their  mother  was,  and  were  told  that  she  was 
coming.  The  old  Bear  asked  where  her  cub  was,  and  the 
young  Deer  replied  that  it  was  asleep.  Then  they  ran  off. 
The  Bear  ate  the  yellow- jacket's  comb,  and,  finding  the  claw 
in  it,  knew  that  the  cub  was  dead.  The  two  Deer  meanwhile 
had  collected  some  berries,  and  had  shot  them  in  all  directions, 
before  running  away  for  good.  The  Bear  came  running  out 
as  soon  as  she  found  that  her  cub  had  been  killed,  and  called 
to  the  two  Deer;  but  the  berries  answered  for  them,  and  the 
Bear  went  here  and  there  in  a  vain  search.  Finally  she  did 
find  their  track,  and,  following  it,  came  in  sight  of  them.  The 
two  Deer  had  jumped  up  on  the  top  of  a  very  tall  rock,  and, 
as  the  Bear  came,  they  told  the  rock  to  stretch,  and  grow 
taller  yet.  It  did  so,  and  the  Bear  came  to  the  base  of  it,  but 
could  not  climb  up.  The  two  Deer  then  lighted  a  fire  on  the 
top,  and  heated  stones  red-hot.  The  Bear  asked  how  she 
could  climb  up ;  and  they  tqld  her  to  shut  her  eyes  and  open 
her  mouth,  when  she  would  find  it  easy.  The  Bear  followed 
their  advice,  and  just  as  she  reached  the  top  the  girl  threw  a 
large  hot  rock  into  the  Bear's  mouth,  and  killed  her.  The 
tall  stone,  with  the  tracks  of  the  Deer  and  Bear,  is  still  to  be 
seen  at  Bald-Rock.1 


Grisly  Bear  and  .Deer  went  down  the  Cosumnes  River, 
below  Plymouth,  to  pick  clover.  They  had  a  race  to  see  who 
would  get  there  first,  and  in  the  race  Deer  won.  By  and  by 
Bear  came,  and  they  began  to  pick  clover.  After  a  while  Deer 
said,  "Sister-in-law,  the  lice  are  biting  me."  Bear  started  to 
bite  the  lice  out,  but  bit  off  Deer's  head  and  killed  her.  Then 
Bear  ate  Deer  all  but  her  head,  which  she  carried  home  in  a 
basket.  There  were  two  little  Deer  who  were  the  children  of 
the  one  who  had  been  killed;  and  they,  having  been  left  at 
home,  began  to  cry.  When  Bear  came  home  to  where  they 
all  lived,  she  told  the  little  Deer  to  go  to  the  basket  and  get  the 
clover  that  was  there  for  their  supper.  The  youngest  went, 

1  Told  at  Mooretown. 
[June, 


82       Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

and  saw  his  mother's  ear  at  the  bottom  of  the  basket.  He 
went  at  once  and  told  his  older  brother,  who  would  not  be 
lieve  it,  but  went  to  look  for  himself.  That  night  the  two 
Deer  burned  all  the  store  of  seeds  that  their  mother  had  laid 
away  for  the  winter.  Bear  asked  them  what  they  were 
doing,  and  they  replied  that  they  were  burning  bark.  Next 
day,  while  Bear  had  gone  to  pound  acorns,  the  two  Deer  took 
some  water  and  boiled  it.  Then  they  seized  Bear's  child,  and 
threw  it  into  the  boiling  water;  and  when  it  was  dead,  they 
cut  off  the  skin  in  strips  as  if  the  little  Bear  was  painted. 
Then  they  went  and  collected  wood  in  order  to  cook  some 
acorns.  When  the  old  Bear  got  through  pounding  acorns, 
she  saw  her  child  leaning  against  a  rock,  dead.  Bear  then 
began  to  call  out  for  the  two  Deer.  They  had  piled  a  lot  of 
wood  in  a  long  row,  and  at  the  end  of  it  placed  four  quartz 
rocks.  .  .  .  While  Bear  was  chasing  the  Deer,  they  climbed 
a  big  rock,  and  their  tracks  are  still  to  be  seen  to-day.  .  .  . 
Bear  asked  the  Deer  where  they  had  crossed  the  stream,  and 
they  replied,  "We  crossed  right  there.  Open  your  mouth 
when  you  swim."  Then  the  oldest  one  took  a  hot  rock  and 
threw  it  at  Bear,  and  missed  her  three  times.  The  youngest 
one  then  seized  a  rock,  and  threw  it  into  Bear's  mouth. 
It  passed  right  through  Bear,  and  came  out  at  her  tail. 
Then  the  two  Deer  called  all  the  other  animals,  and  they 
came  and  skinned  Bear.  After  Bear's  hide  had  been  spread 
down,  the  two  Deer  were  lying  on  it.  'The  youngest  lay 
on  his  back,  and  saw  something  coming  down  from  far  up 
in  the  sky.  He  cried,  "There's  my  uncle  coming,  there  is 
Spider  (Pusso)!"  The  older  brother  would  not  believe  it  at 
first.  By  and  by  Spider  came  down,  wrapped  the  two  in 
Bear's  skin,  and  drew  them  up  to  the  sky  with  him.  When 
Spider  and  the  Deer  reached  the  sky,  the  two  Deer  began  to 
play  ball,  rolling  it  along  the  ground.  The  youngest  followed 
it  and  saw  his  mother.  The  older  brother  did  not  believe  it 
was  their  mother  at  all.  The  younger  one  then  went  and  was 
nursed  at  his  mother's  bosom,  and,  coming  back  to  where  his 
brother  was,  spat  the  milk  out  into  his  hand;  then  his  brother 
believed.  Then  they  both  went  to  live  with  their  mother 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  83 

again.  One  day  they  were  thirsty,  and  wanted  a  drink. 
Their  mother  said,  "It  is  hard  to  get  any  water  here."  She 
went,  however,  to  get  some,  fell  in,  and  was  drowned.1 

10.  Coyote  Tales* 

i.  Fox  went  hunting  one  day.  He  chased  an  Elk  far 
away  to  the  north,  then  circled  around  to  the  east,  and  drove 
him  back  to  the  place  whence  they  had  started.  Before  they 
got  back  to  their  starting-point,  Fox  grew  tired  of  the  chase, 
and  left  Elk  to  go  on  by  himself.  When  Elk  had  nearly 
reached  the  place  whence  he  set  out,  he  passed  by  Porcupine, 
who  was  lying  in  a  hollow  tree.  As  he  did  so,  Porcupine 
shot  and  killed  him.  Porcupine  came  out  from  his  hiding- 
place,  and  stood  around,  thinking  how  he  should  skin  Elk. 
He  said,  "I  have  no  knife.  I  must  hunt  up  a  sharp  stone:  I 
can  use  it  for  a  knife.  I  wonder  why  I  shot  him,  when  I  have 
no  knife  to  skin  him  with  and  cut  him  up." 

Coyote  was  going  along  the  side-hill  just  at  this  time,  and 
heard  Porcupine  talking  to  himself.  He  wondered  what  it 
meant,  and  ran  down  to  see.  Porcupine  picked  up  a  piece  of 
stone  and  said,  "I  wish  you  were  sharp."  Just  then  Coyote 
came  along.  He  said,  "What  are  you  talking  about  all  the 
time?  What  are  you  saying  to  yourself?"  Porcupine  re 
plied,  "I  am  talking  because  I  have  no  knife.  I  killed  an  Elk, 
and  now  I  can't  skin  him."  To  this  Coyote  answered,  "If 
you  will  give  me  half  the  Elk,  I'll  let  you  have  my  knife." 
Porcupine  said,  "No,  you  ask  too  much.  I'll  give  you  one 
quarter  if  you  will  let  me  have  your  knife."  Coyote  agreed 
to  this.  Porcupine  took  the  knife  and  began  to  skin  the  Elk, 
while  Coyote  sat  on  a  rock  near  by  and  watched  him. 

When  Porcupine  had  finished  skinning  the  animal,  and  was 
about  to  pull  off  the  skin,  Coyote  called  out,  "Stop!  Let  me 
tell  you  something  good.  Let  us  get  out  here  and  jump,  and 
the  one  that  jumps  the  farthest  will  get  the  whole  Elk." 
Porcupine  stopped  and  said,  "No,  I  won't  do  that.  I  can't 

1  Told  at  Nashville,  El  Dorado  County. 

2  For  other  coyote  tales  see  R.  B.  Dixon,  Some  Coyote  Stories  from  the  Maidu  In 
dians  of  California  (Journal  of  American  Folk-Lore,  Vol.  XIII,  pp.  267-270). 


84      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

jump."  Coyote  replied,  "Do  you  suppose  a  fellow  like  me 
can  jump?  But  if  you  won't  jump,  let  us  wrestle."  Again 
Porcupine  refused,  and  said,  "No,  do  you  think  a  fellow  like 
me  can  wrestle?  I  cannot  wrestle."  Then  Coyote  said, 
"Let  us  run  a  race.  You  look  as  if  you  could  run."  But 
Porcupine  said,  "No,  I  can't  run."  Finally  Coyote  said, 
"Well,  put  the  skin  over  the  Elk,  and  then  we  will  run,  and 
see  who  can  jump  farthest  over  it."  Porcupine  replied,  "  Do 
you  think  I  can  jump?  But  if  you  want  to  jump  this  way, 
I'll  try.  You  begin.  We  must  have  two  turns  apiece." 
Coyote  went  back  a  little  ways,  trotted  up  to  the  skin,  and 
hopped  over  easily.  Porcupine  came  along,  and  barely  suc 
ceeded  in  getting  over.  Coyote  was  glad.  He  clapped  his 
hands  and  laughed.  He  thought  he  should  surely  win.  He 
started  on  his  second  jump,  but,  just  as  he  rose  over  the  Elk's 
body,  Porcupine  said  to  the  skin,  "Rise  up!"  and  it  rose,  so 
that  Coyote  only  barely  got  across.  Then  Porcupine  jumped 
the  second  time,  and  won  the  Elk.  He  began  to  cut  it  up, 
and  Coyote  sat  by  and  looked  on.  When  Porcupine  had  the 
meat  all  cut  up,  he  looked  over  and  saw  Coyote.  Feeling 
sorry  for  him,  he  cut  off  a  piece  of  the  Elk's  lights,  and  gave 
it  to  him.  Then  he  kept  on  cutting,  and  turned  his  back  on 
Coyote,  who  stole  a  quarter  and  a  shoulder,  and  ran  off, 
leaving  his  knife  behind.  Porcupine  piled  up  the  rest  of  the 
meat  in  the  hollow  tree,  and  lived  there  for  some  time.1 

2.  Coyote  was  travelling  eastwards.  He  had  a  small  dog 
with  him.  After  he  had  gone  quite  a  ways,  he  met  Snow- 
Hunter.2  Snow-Hunter  had  a  big  dog,  and  proposed  to 
Coyote  that  they  should  let  their  dogs  fight.  Coyote  said, 
"No,  my  dog  is  too  small.  Let  me  think  about  it."  He 
went  off  a  little  distance  and  defecated.  He  looked,  and  saw 
that  it  was  a  mouse's  head.  He  asked  it,  "What  shall  I  do? 
If  I  fight,  shall  I  win?"  He  was  answered,  "You  must  not 
fight.  If  you  do,  both  you  and  your  dog  will  be  killed." 
Coyote  was  angry.  He  said,  "That's  what  you  always  say. 

1  Told  at  Genesee.     Compare  Kroeber,  /.  c.,  pp.  270  et  seq. 

2  This  term  is  apparently  also  used  to  refer  to  the  Pit  River  Indians. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  85 

You  always  prophesy  bad  luck."  So  he  kicked  it  downhill. 
He  defecated  again,  this  time  a  bunch  of  grass.  He  asked, 
"What  shall  I  do?  Shall  I  fight?"  This  time  he  was  an 
swered,  "Yes.  You  must  fight.  You  will  win,  and  kill  both 
the  man  and  his  dog."  Then  Coyote  was  pleased,  and  said, 
"That  is  what  I  like.  You  are  a  good  fellow."  He  went 
back  to  Snow-Hunter,  and  said,  "All  right.  We  will  let  our 
dogs  fight."  They  did  so,  and  after  a  while  Coyote's  little 
dog  killed  Snow-Hunter's  big  dog.  Then  Coyote  and  Snow- 
Hunter  fought,  and  in  the  end  Coyote  won.  Coyote  got  the 
best  of  him,  killed  him.1 

3.  Coyote  and  his  grandmother  were  living  in  a  sweat- 
house  all  alone.  One  day  Coyote  heard  some  one  shout  far 
off  to  the  east.  He  said  to  his  grandmother,  "I  hear  some 
one  shouting."  She  replied,  "That  is  something  bad.  Do 
not  answer  it."  Then  Coyote  said,  "What  is  bad  about  it? " 
and  gave  a  shout  in  answer.  Pretty  soon  he  heard  another 
shout,  and  again  Coyote  answered.  By  and  by  the  shouts 
came  nearer,  and  Coyote  began  to  get  frightened.  He  said  to 
himself,  "How  can  I  save  my  grandmother's  life?  I  know 
what  to  do:  I'll  dig  a  hole  in  the  floor,  and  bury  her."  So  he 
ran  in,  dug  a  hole,  threw  his  grandmother,  in,  covered  her 
up,  and  smoothed  the  earth  down  nicely.  Then  he  ran  out 
again,  and  heard  the  shout  close  by.  He  answered,  and  then 
wondered  how  to  save  his  own  life.  He  ran  off  up  behind  the 
house  and  defecated,  and  inquired  of  his  excrement  what  he 
should  do.  The  first  replied,  "You  will  be  killed."  Coyote 
kicked  it  away  down  the  hill,  and  asked  a  second.  He  was 
told,  "  You  must  hurry,  run  to  those  trees,  gather  all  the  pitch 
you  can  find,  and  carry  it  down  to  the  fire.  Warm  it  there, 
so  that  it  will  stick  together,  and  then  plaster  it  thick  all  along 
your  belly.  When  the  person  comes,  and  asks  you  if  he  may 
cut  you  open  and  take  the  fat  from  your  entrails,  say,  'Yes.' 
Let  him  do  it  to  you  first."  Coyote  did  all  this,  and  then  the 
person  arrived.  It  was  Snow- Hunter.  He  came  up  and  said 
to  Coyote,  "Grandmother-Burier."  Coyote  replied,  "Are 

1  Told  at  Genesee.     Compare  Teit,  /.  c.,  pp.  3°  et  seq. 


86      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

you  crazy?  Did  you  ever  see  any  one  bury  his  grandmother 
alive?"  Then  Snow-Hunter  said,  "Let  us  take  the  fat  from 
our  entrails  and  eat  it.  I  will  take  yours,  and  you  can  take 
mine."  Coyote  said,  "All  right!  Take  mine  first."  Then 
he  lay  down,  and  Snow-Hunter  began  to  cut  off  the  pitch 
which  Coyote  had  plastered  on  his  belly.  Coyote  lay  there, 
groaning,  and  saying,  "Oh,  oh!  you  are  cutting  too  deep,  you 
are  killing  me ! "  There  was  a  big  fire  ready ;  and  when  Snow- 
Hunter  had  cut  off  what  he  thought  was  the  fat,  but  which 
was  only  the  pitch  Coyote  had  put  on,  Coyote  rolled  over, 
and  groaned  that  he  was  killed.  Snow-Hunter  took  the  pitch 
to  the  fire,  and  began  to  cook  it.  It  began  to  soften  and 
melt.  He  turned  it  over  and  over,  and  thought  it  was  the 
fat  that  was  cooking  out:  so  he  took  it  off  the  fire,  and  began 
to  eat  it.  It  did  not  taste  very  good,  and  he  said,  "  It  doesn't 
taste  very  good,  but  I  will  eat  it,  anyway."  When  he  had 
eaten  it  all,  Coyote  got  up  and  said,  "Now  let  me  try  you." 
Snow-Hunter  said,  "No,  you  won't  eat  me."  Coyote  said, 
"Oh,  yes!  I  will:  let  me  cut  you.  I  won't  take  but  a  little 
piece.  I  do  not  eat  much.  I  shall  not  need  a  great  deal." 
Then  Snow-Hunter  said,  "All  right!  but  don't  eat  much." 
Then  he  lay  down,  and  Coyote  took  a  knife  and  thrust  it  in  up 
to  the  hilt,  and  ripped  Snow-Hunter  up,  and  killed  him. 
Coyote  then  said,  "People  can  call  you  Kom  maidu.  You 
will  never  be  seen,  you  will  be  invisible."  Then  he  dug  his 
grandmother  up,  and  they  lived  there  always.1 

4.  People  were  angry  with  Coyote.  They  all  agreed  that 
every  one  should  come  in  from  north  and  east,  from  south  and 
west,  and  crowd  all  the  Coyotes  into  the  centre  of  the  country, 
and  then  they  would  kill  every  Coyote.  They  did  this,  but 
overlooked  one.  He  was  an  Initiate  (Ye'ponim),  and  the 
chief  of  all.  They  hunted  everywhere  for  him,  and  at  last 
they  found  him.  Then  they  looked  everywhere  for  the 
largest  tree  they  could  find,  and  finally  found  it  to  the  west. 
It  was  a  great  yellow-pine,  and,  having  split  it  open,  they  put 
Coyote  inside,  and  let  the  tree  close  together  over  him.  They 

1  Told  at  Genesee. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  87 

thought  they  had  killed  him  this  way.  The  chief  called  all 
the  people  together  and  said,  "As  you  spread  out  to  go  home, 
see  if  you  can  hear  any  noise  like  a  Coyote."  The  pine-tree 
was  hollow,  and  so  Coyote  was  not  crushed  to  death,  as  the 
people  thought.  He  was  merely  imprisoned.  By  and  by 
Red-headed  Woodpecker  (Ma'kmakko)  came,  and  began 
tapping  on  the  log,  as  it  sounded  hollow.  He  worked  away 
for  two  days,  and  all  this  time  Coyote  lay  still  and  listened. 
At  the  end  of  the  next  two  days  he  could  see  a  faint  spot  of 
light.  Next  day  Woodpecker  came  again,  and  enlarged  the 
hole  he  had  made,  so  that  Coyote  could  see  quite  a  little  light. 
By  and  by  Coyote  said,  "Cousin,  make  the  hole  bigger, 
please;"  but  the  Woodpecker  was  frightened,  and  flew  away. 
Then  Coyote  got  angry,  and  said,  "The  reason  people  call  me 
crazy  is  that  I  don't  know  enough  to  keep  q'uiet." 

The  bird  did  not  return,  and  Coyote  wondered  how  he  was 
to  get  out.  At  last  he  defecated,  and  inquired  how  he  could 
get  out.  He  was  answered  that  he  would  never  get  out,  but 
that  he  would  die  in  the  tree.  Angry  at  this  prophecy,  he 
defecated  a  second  time,  and,  on  questioning  his  faeces,  was 
told  to  transform  himself  into  a  fog,  and  thus  pass  through 
the  small  hole  that  Woodpecker  had  made.  He  did  so;  and 
as  soon  as  he  came  out,  he  again  became  a  Coyote.  He  said, 
"I'm  a  Coyote,  and  can  never  die.  People  may  kill  me,  but 
there  will  always  be  Coyotes  left." 

When  the  people  had  put  Coyote  into  the  tree,  the  chief 
had  said,  "  If  we  hear  nothing  of  him  for  six  days,  we  may  be 
sure  that  he  is  dead."  Coyote,  however,  got  out  on  the  fifth 
day,  and  started  back  toward  this  country.  On  the  sixth 
morning,  just  at  daylight,  he  began  to  howl,  just  to  let  people 
know  that  there  were  some  Coyotes  left.  The  people  heard 
him,  and  said,  "We  hear  Coyotes  crying.  They  are  still 
alive."  They  hunted  for  him  again,  caught  him,  and  took 
him  to  the  west,  to  a  great  lake  in  the  middle  of  which  was  a 
rock,  from  which  he  could  not  swim  away.  .They  put  him  on 
the  rock;  and  the  chief  said,  "If  another  six  days  go  by,  and 
we  hear  nothing  of  him,  he  will  be  dead."  Coyote  thought  a 
long  time  as  to  how  he  should  get  away,  but  could  not  think 


88      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

of  any  way.  So  he  asked  the  advice  of  his  excrement,  as 
before.  The  first  time  he  asked,  it  said,  "  How  do  you  think 
you  can  get  away  from  here?  You  will  have  to  stay  till  you 
die."  The  second  time  he  was,  as  before,  more  successful, 
and  was  told,  "You  will  live.  In  the  morning,  if  you  watch, 
the  fog  will  rise.  When  it  does,  get  off  on  it,  and  travel  to 
the  east,  back  to  the  land."  Coyote  followed  this  advice, 
and  on  the  sixth  day  he  reached  land  again,  and,  coming  back 
to  this  country,  began  to  howl.  He  said,  "People  can  say 
the  Coyote  will  never  die.  The  Coyote  can  never  be  killed  off. 
Wherever  I  urinate,  even  if  I  am  killed,  there  will  be  another 
Coyote  again."  The  people  heard  him  howling,  and  said, 
"He  has  got  the  best  of  us.  He  has  beaten  us.  Let  us  give 
him  up."  Then  Coyote  went  off,  saying  to  himself,  "I'm 
going  to  travel  through  the  middle  of  this  world ;  and  in  every 
valley  I  come  to,  I'll  catch  mice  for  my  living.  I'll  be  a 
Coyote."  ' 

5.  A  man  was  fishing.     Coyote   came   along,    and   asked 
him  if  he  was  catching  any  fish.     The  man  answered,  "Yes." 
Then  Coyote  asked  the  man  to  give  him  some,  and  the  man 
said,  "Go  on  up  the  creek,  and  light  a  fire.     By  and  by  I  will 
come,  and  we  will  cook  the  fish."     Pretty  soon  Coyote  came 
back.     The  man  said,  "I  told  you  to  go  farther  up  and  build 
the  fire."     Coyote  went  back  and  built  another  fire  farther 
away,  then  came  back  again.     He  received  the  same  answer, 
and,  on  building  another  fire,  came  back  once  more.     This 
time  he  told  the  man  that  if  he  did  not  give  him  some  of  the 
fish,  he  would  steal  them.     The  next  time  he  came  back  and 
was  disappointed.     Then  he  went  on  the  other  side  of  the 
creek,  and  made  a  jump  at  the  man.     The  latter  turned  so 
that  Coyote  landed  on  a  bag  of  deer-bone  fish-hooks,  which 
caught  his  feet.     Coyote  begged  to  be  released,  but  the  man 
refused;    and  finally  Coyote  tore  himself  loose,  and  ran  off, 
saying,  "People  can  call  me  Coyote."  * 

6.  The  young  Deer  were   living   with    their    grandfather 
Shitepoke.     Coyote  came  to  court  the  girl,  kept  coming,  and 

1  Told  at  Genesee. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  89 

staying  very  late, — till  midnight  or  morning.  Finally  he 
told  the  old  Shitepoke  what  he  wanted,  and  the  latter  agreed 
to  let  him  marry  the  girl.  So  Coyote  took  her  away  to  his 
camp.  After  a  while  the  wife  grew  lazy,  making  Coyote  go 
for  water,  etc.  He  grew  tired  of  this,  and  one  day  told  her 
to  go  for  the  water.  She  did  not  answer;  and  after  speaking 
several  times,  Coyote  got  angry,  seized  the  woman,  and  threw 
her  up  out  of  the  smoke-hole.  Her  deer-skin  robe  caught, 
and  remained  hanging  down,  while  the  woman  went  off  back 
to  her  grandfather's.  Coyote  thought  that  his  wife  was  still 
sitting  up  on  the  roof,  and  called  to  her  to  come  down.  She 
did  not  answer.  Then  he  said,  "If  you  don't  come  down, 
I'll  pull  you  down."  Still  she  did  not  answer:  so  he  jumped 
up,  caught  the  robe,  and  gave  it  a  pull.  It  came  easily,  and 
Coyote  fell  over  into  the  fire  with  the  robe  on  top  of  him.  He 
was  nearly  burned  to  death,  but  finally  came  to,  and  went 
away,  saying,  "People  can  call  me  Coyote." 

7.  Coyote  once  wanted  a  woman,  but  could  get  no  one 
who  would  have  anything  to  do  with  him.     So  he  resolved  on 
a  trick.     He  built  himself  a  sweat-house,  cut  off  his  membrum 
virile,  and  made  a  baby  of  it.     He  made  himself  look  like  a 
woman,  and  invited  a  lot  of  women  to  his  house  for  a  big 
feast.     When  they  came,  all  danced  for  a  while,  then  ate,  and 
then  lay  down  and  went  to  sleep.     As  soon  as  all  the  women 
were  asleep,  Coyote  turned  himself  back  into  a  man,  cohab 
ited  with   the   women,   then   went   away.     In   the   morning 
the  women  woke  up.     They  found  that  some  had  children, 
others  were  in  the  pains  of  child-birth.     There  was  no  dance- 
house,  everything  was  gone.1 

8.  Coyote  lived  with  his  grandmother.     She  was  pounding 
acorns  one  day,  and  wanted  some  wood  to  make  a  fire,  for  the 
purpose  of  heating  the  stones  with  which  she  was  going  to 
cook  the  meal.     So  she  sent  Coyote  after  some  wood.     He 
went  up  on  the  side-hill,  and  was  starting  back  with  an  armful 
when  he  heard  some  one  singing.     He  stopped  to  listen,  and 

1  Told  at  Genesee. 


9°      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

said,  "It  is  a  woman.  I'll  go  and  see  her."  So  he  dropped 
his  load  of  wood,  and  followed  the  singing.  He  followed  all 
day,  but  could  not  catch  up.  Night  came,  and  he  took  some 
grass  and  made  himself  a  bed  in  a  hollow  tree.  In  the  morn 
ing,  when  he  woke  up,  he  found  that  the  tree  had  grown  up 
over  him,  and  that  he  was  a  prisoner.  He  did  not  know  how 
to  get  out.  Presently  he  heard  a  woodpecker  tapping ;  for  the 
tree  was  an  old  one,  and  had  many  worms  in  it.  Coyote 
called  out,  thinking  it  was  some  friend,  but  only  scared  the 
bird,  which  flew  off  to  a  neighboring  tree,  but  soon  returned. 
A  second  time  the  bird  was  startled  and  flew  away,  but  again 
came  back.  By  this  time  Coyote  knew  that  it  was  a  wood 
pecker,  and  kept  still.  After  a  while  the  woodpecker  had 
pecked  a  hole  through,  and  Coyote,  overjoyed  at  the  sight  of 
daylight,  again  scared  the  bird  away.  He  was  now  in  a 
quandary  as  to  what  to  do.  He  had  one  resource  left, 
however.  He  defecated,  and  then  asked  the  faeces  what  to 
do.  They  could  not  tell  him;  so  he  tried  again,  and  this  time 
the  faeces  told  him  to  turn  himself  into  a  mist,  and,  so  doing, 
he  passed  easily  out  of  the  hole  made  by  the  bird,  and  was 
free.  He  turned  himself  back  into  his  normal  shape,  and 
hurried  on  after  the  woman.  He  followed  all  the  way  to 
Sacramento  Valley  (To'kongkoyo),  and  here  he  saw  the 
woman,  Loon,  lying  in  a  sweat-house  in  the  middle  of  the 
river.  He  could  not  get  to  her  there,  so  he  came  back  home 
to  his  grandmother  again,  saying,  "People  can  call  me  a 
Coyote."  ' 

9.  One  day  Coyote  was  watching  some  Humming-Birds 
darting  about,  and  hanging  apparently  motionless  in  mid-air. 
He  thought,  "If  I  could  only  do  that,  all  the  girls  in  the 
country  would  fall  in  love  with  me."  So  he  asked  one  of  the 
Humming-Birds,  ' '  How  did  you  ever  learn  to  do  that  ?  Teach 
me  how  to  do  it  too,  my  cousin."  Humming-Bird  replied, 
"The  way  that  I  learned  to  do  it  was  to  pick  out  a  tall  tree, 
climb  up  into  it,  and  jump  down;  and  just  before  hitting  the 
ground  I  would  say,  'Piu'nu!'  and  that  would  turn  me  up- 

1  Compare  Burns,  /.  c.,  pp.  311  et  seq. 


1 902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  9 1 

wards  again,  and  prevent  my  being  hurt."  Coyote  was  de 
lighted,  and  went  at  once  to  find  a  suitable  tree.  He  found 
one,  climbed  up,  and  leaped  from  the  top;  but  before  he 
could  say,  "Piu'nu!"  he  struck  the  ground  and  was  killed. 
He  lay  there  for  a  long  time,  till  he  was  all  dried  up.  Then 
two  Crows  came  along,  and  began  to  eat  his  eyes.  Just  at 
this  time  Coyote  came  to  life  again,  and  called  out,  "  Did  you 
think  I  was  dead?  I  was  only  asleep,  so  let  me  alone." 
Then  he  took  a  club  and  tried  to  hit  the  Crows,  but  they  flew 
away.  As  he  lay  there  he  looked  about,  and  saw  many  large 
black  crickets.  He  had  been  there  so  long  that  he  was 
nearly  starved,  so  he  picked  them  up  one  by  one,  and  ate 
them;  but  he  did  not  seem  to  be  able  to  appease  his  hunger. 
He  ate  and  ate,  but  was  just  as  hungry  as  before.  He  won 
dered  to  himself,  "Why  can't  I  fill  up  on  them?"  By  and 
by  he  looked  behind  him,  and  found  that  he  had  lain  there  so 
long  that-  there  was  a  big  hole  in  him,  and  the  crickets  were 
crawling  out  as  fast  as  he  swallowed  them.  When  he  saw 
this,  he  laughed,  and  said,  "Well,  people  can  call  me  Coyote." 

10.  Once,  before  men  had  been  made,  all  the  animals  went 
in  search  of  fire  to  the  south,  to  a  burning  mountain.  They 
got  there  after  a  long  journey,  and  went  in  after  it.  While 
most  of  the  people  were  away  getting  the  fire,  Fox  (Ha'wi) 
took  Coyote  off  somewhere,  so  that  he  would  not  make 
trouble.  The  people  were  coming  back  with  the  fire. .  They 
tossed  it  from  one  to  the  other  as  they  went.  Coyote  saw 
them,  and,  escaping  from  Fox,  he  got  in  ahead  of  the  others 
and  caught  the  fire  in  his  mouth.  It  burned  him,  so  he  dropped 
it  in  the  grass,  and  in  a  moment  it  spread  everywhere.  Most 
of  the  animals  and  birds  were  burned.  Coyote  ran  north, 
but  the  fire  began  to  gain  on  him.  It  burned  the  tip  of  his 
tail,  and  he  howled  with  pain.  As  he  went  along,  he  asked 
everything  he  came  to,  "  How  are  you  going  to  be  when  the 
fire  comes?"  And  the  squirrel-hole  answered,  "Red-hot;" 
and  the  lake  answered,  "Boiling  hot;"  and  the  brush- 
thicket  answered,  "I'll  be  in  ashes."  So  Coyote  ran  on. 
Presently  he  came  to  a  hollow  log,  and,  without  asking  it  any 


9  2      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

questions,  he  crawled  in.  Soon  the  fire  came  and  burned  up 
the  log,  and  with  it  Coyote;  but  when  the  fire  had  gone  out, 
he  came  to  life  again,  and  came  back  to  where  the  other  ani 
mals  were  living.1 

n.  Coyote  had  a  sister-in-law  who  was  called  Bear 
(Pa/no).  Coyote  told  his  wife  one  morning  that  he  was  going 
to  see  his  sister-in-law.  His  wife  said  to  him,  "  Don't  be  too 
rough."  He  said,  "All  right,  I'll  be  careful.  I  just  want  to 
see  what  she  is  doing."  When  he  got  to  his  sister-in-law's, 
he  made  fun  of  her  while  she  sat  making  a  basket.  She  grew 
angry  at  his  jokes,  and  jumped  on  him,  and  began  to  bite  him 
to  pieces,  and  scatter  him  all  about.  But  Coyote  all  the  time 
kept  on  laughing  and  saying,  "  Don't  tickle  me  so,  don't  tickle 
me  so."  As  long  as  she  did  not  destroy  the  little  finger  on 
his  right  hand,  she  could  not  kill  him.2  By  and  by  Bear 
began  to  get  close  to  this  finger,  so  Coyote  bit  her  in  the  paw, 
and  she  dropped  dead.  Then  he  went  back  to  his  wife.  She 
asked  him  how  his  sister-in-law  was,  and  he  said  she  was  very 
well.  Next  day  Coyote  went  again  to  see  his  sister-in-law. 
By  this  time  her  body  had  begun  to  decay.  Coyote  began  to 
cry.  He  told  his  wife  that  her  sister  had  died  of  pneumonia 
(Tse'sesi).  They  were  going  to  have  a  big  burning.  When 
the  Bears  came  to  the  chief's  house,  they  saw  Coyote  there. 
He  began  to  cry,  "The  Bears  are  going  to  take  the  village!" 
But  his  wife  said,  "  Don't  try  to  make  fun.  They  are  coming 
to  let  us  know  when  there  is  going  to  be  a  big  time."  Coyote 
said,  "How  can  a  Bear  have  a  big  time?"  They  all  went 
down  to  have  a  big  time,  and  tied  Coyote  up  to  keep  him 
from  going.  He  got  loose,  however,  and  went.  There  was  a 
great  fight.  Coyote  ran  and  ran,  till  he  could  run  no  more; 
then  .he  crawled  into  a  hollow  log.  But  the  Bears  came  and 
pulled  him  out,  and  ate  him.1 

12.  By  and  by  Coyote  came  to  life.  He  got  up  and 
walked  along.  Pretty  soon  he  reached  a  little  creek  where 
some  Blackbirds  were  eating.  He  asked  them  why  they  were 

1  Told  at  Chico.  *  See  ante,  p.  71. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  93 

so  black  and  handsome.  They  said  that  they  had  become 
so  by  digging  a  big  hole  in  the  ground,  building  a  fire  in  it, 
and  when  the  ground  was  red-hot,  getting  in  and  being 
covered  up.  Coyote  thought  this  was  a  very  nice  thing.  He 
asked  if  they  would  do  this  to  him.  They  said  they  would. 
So  he  helped  them  to  dig  the  hole  and  build  the  fire,  and  when 
all  was  ready  he  got  into  the  hole.  The  birds  covered  him 
all  up  and  left  him.  He  was  burned  all  up.1 

13.  Coyote  saw  Turtle  sitting  on  a  log.     Coyote  thought 
the  back  of  Turtle  was  very  handsome,  and  so  he  asked  Turtle 
how  he  had  acquired  it.     Turtle  said  that  in  order  to  have  one 
like  it,  Coyote  must  get  a  lot  of  flints  (arrow-points)  and  stick 
them  on  sticks,  and  set  these  up  under  a  tall  tree.     Then  he 
must  climb  the  tree,  and  fall  off  from  a  slanting  limb  on  to 
the  points.     So  Coyote  did  as  Turtle  had  told  him;   but  he 
did  not  get  the  same  fine  back.     He  was  killed  instead.2 

14.  Coyote  was  walking   along  by   a  river.      He    saw    a 
sycamore-tree.      A  leaf  blew  off  from  it,  and  came  sailing 
softly  down  to  the  ground.     Coyote  thought  he  could  do  the 
same:   so  up  the  tree  he  went,  jumped  off,  and  was  smashed 
all  to  pieces.2 

15.  Along  this  same  river  Coyote  saw  some  Frogs  jumping 
over  a  rock  and  diving  under  the  next  one  into  the  water 
beyond.     He  envied  them:    so  he  asked  them  if  he  might 
play  at  jumping  with  them.     They  said,  "Yes."     So  Coyote 
jumped;    but  he  struck  his  forehead  on  a  rock  under  the 
water,  and  killed  himself.2 

1 6.  Coyote  had  a  sweat-house  in  the  Coast  Range  (Ta'iya- 
mani).     He  called  a  "big  time,"  and  invited  all  the  people. 
They  were  to  have  a  great  race  to  gamble  for  their  countries. 
Coyote  said,  "The  ones  that  lose  must  stay  in  the  mountains." 
The  race  was  to  be  from  the  Coast  Range  to  Honey  Lake. 
All  formed  in  line,  and  Coyote  said,  "After  this  race,  all  of 

1  Told  at  Chico.     Compare  Curtin,  /.  c.,  pp.  333  et  seq.  3  Told  at  Chico. 


94      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

you,  winners  or  losers,  will  be  animals.  After  this  people 
can  call  me  a  great  chief.  People  everywhere  can  talk  about 
me,  and  laugh  about  me.  If  I  am  beaten,  my  food  will  be 
mice,  and  other  things  like  that."  They  all  started.  The 
slower  ones  were  left  behind,  and  staid  there.  The  Jack- 
Rabbit  won,  and  so  gained  the  Honey-Lake  country  and  all 
the  valleys.  Bear,  Deer,  etc.,  had  to  take  the  mountains.1 

ii.  The  Fish-Hawk  and  the  Two  Deer-Ticks.1 

Fish-Hawk  lived  at  Big  Meadows  (Na'kangkoyo).  He  was 
married;  and  his  two  brothers,  the  Deer- Ticks,  lived  with 
him.  In  the  morning  he  would  go  out  to  hunt,  and  then  later 
come  back  with  many  ducks  and  geese.  The  two  Deer-Ticks 
would  ask  him  for  some  mallard,  and  then  Fish- Hawk  would 
pick  out  the  poorest  he  had,  and  throw  it  at  them,  knocking 
them  down.  They  would  then  get  up,  take  the  duck,  cook  it, 
and  eat  it.  Every  day  Fish-Hawk  treated  the  Deer-Ticks  in 
this  way.  The  biggest  said  to  the  other  finally,  "  Our  brother 
is  treating  us  pretty  badly.  How  do  you  think  we  can  stand 
it?  How  can  we  get  along? "  The  younger  replied,  "  I  don't 
think  we  can  get  along.  We  must  do  something."  Then 
the  older  said,  "Our  brother  is  finishing  some  arrow-points. 
When  he  drops  the  biggest  pieces,  pick  them  up;  but  don't 
let  him  see  you  do  it."  Soon  Fish-Hawk  got  so  that  he 
would  not  give  his  brothers  anything  at  all  to  eat.  Said  one 
of  them,  "I  think  we  shall  have  to  starve,  even  if  we  have  a 
brother  who  is  getting  plenty  of  game."  While  Fish- Hawk 
was  away,  his  wife  would  feed  the  Deer-Ticks  secretly.  The 
youngest  brother  found  a  small  piece  of  flint,  and  gave  it  to 
the  other,  who  put  it  in  his  bag. 

After  a  while  the  one  brother  said  to  the  other,  "I'm  going 
out  to  a  deer-trail  to  see  if  I  can  see  a  Deer  coming  along.  If 
I  see  one,  I  will  ask  him  if  we  can  go  off  with  him.  We  must 
do  something,  or  we  shall  starve  to  death."  So  the  two 
brothers  went  out  to  a  deer- trail  and  sat  there.  By  and  by  a 
Deer  came  along,  and  one  brother  smacked  his  lips.  The 

1   Told  at  Genesee. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  95 

Deer  stopped  and  asked  him  why  he  was  sitting  there,  and 
said,  "You  are  a  fine  little  fellow.  You  had  better  come 
along  with  me.  I'm  going  home."  One  of  the  Deer-Ticks 
replied,  "Where  are  you  going  to  carry  me?  If  you  carry  me 
on  your  head,  and  get  into  a  fight,  you  might  kill  me."  The 
Deer  said,  "Oh,  you  can  get  on  my  back." — "No,"  said 
the  Deer-Tick;  "if  I  do,  and  you  go  through  thick  bushes,  I 
might  get  scraped  off."  Then  the  Deer  said,  "Well,  you 
might  crawl  under  my  arm-pit."  But  the  Deer-Ticks  would 
not  agree  to  that,  and  finally  said,  "  If  you  will  put  us  on  your 
neck  or  breast,  we  will  go."  To  this  the  Deer  agreed,  and 
started  off.  Then  quietly  the  Deer-Tick  took  out  the  bit  of 
flint  which  he  had  put  in  his  bag,  and  began  to  cut  the 
Deer's  throat.  The  Deer  felt  it;  but  by  the  time  he  stopped, 
his  throat  was  already  cut.  When  the  Deer  was  dead,  the 
Deer-Tick  went  back  to  the  house  and  told  his  brother's  wife; 
and  she  came  and  skinned  the  animal,  and  brought  back  all 
its  meat,  which  she  hid  for  the  two,  and  did  ndt  tell  her  hus 
band  anything  about  it.  After  a  while  the  meat  was  pretty 
nearly  eaten.  There  was  only  a  little  piece  left,  and  the 
younger  brother  had  this.  He  sat  with  his  back  to  Fish- 
Hawk,  eating  it.  Fish-Hawk  saw  him,  however,  jumped 
across  the  house,  and  took  the  piece  away  from  him,  eating  it 
himself.  The  little  brother  died.  He  said  to  Fish- Hawk, 
"All  people  can  call  you  Fish-Hawk  (Tsi'xtsix).  We  two  will 
be  Deer-Ticks  (Su'mim  tini'm)." 

12.  The  To'lowim-Woman  and  the  Butter  fly -Man.1 

A  To'lowim-Woman  went  out  to  gather  food.  She  had  her 
child  with  her;  and  while  she  gathered  the  food,  she  stuck  the 
point  of  the  cradle-board  in  the  ground,  and  left  the  child 
thus  alone.  As  she  was  busy,  a  large  butterfly  flew  past. 
The  woman  said  to  the  child,  "You  stay  here  while  I  go  and 
catch  the  butterfly."  She  ran  after  it,  and  chased  it  for  a 
long  time.  She  would  almost  catch  it,  and  then  just  miss  it. 
She  wore  a  deer-skin  robe.  She  thought,  "Perhaps  the 

1  Told  at  Genesee. 


9 6      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

reason  why  I  cannot  catch  the  butterfly  is  because  I  have 
this  on."  So  she  threw  it  away.  Still  she  could  not  catch 
the  butterfly,  and  finally  threw  away  her  apron,  and  hurried 
on.  She  had  forgotten  all  about  her  child,  and  kept  on 
chasing  the  butterfly  till  night  came.  Then  she  lay  down 
under  a  tree  and  went  to  sleep.  When  she  awoke  in  the 
morning,  she  found  a  man  lying  beside  her.  He  said,  "You 
have  followed  me  thus  far,  perhaps  you  would  like  to  follow 
me  always.  If  you  would,  you  must  pass  through  a  lot  of  my 
people."  All  this  time  the  child  was  where  the  woman  had 
left  it,  and  she  had  not  thought  of  it  at  all.  She  got  up,  and 
followed  the  butterfly-man.  By  and  by  they  came  to  a  large 
valley,  the  southern  side  of  which  was  full  of  butterflies. 
When  the  two  travellers  reached  the  edge  of  the  valley,  the 
man  said,  "No  one  has  ever  got  through  this  valley.  People 
die  before  they  get  through.  Don't  lose  sight  of  me.  Follow 
me  closely."  They  started,  and  travelled  for  a  long  time. 
The  butterfly-man  said,  "  Keep  tight  hold  of  me,  don't  let  go." 
When  they  had  got  halfway  through,  other  butterflies  came 
flying  about  in  great  numbers.  They  flew  every  way,  about 
their  heads,  and  in  their  faces.  They  were  fine  fellows,  and 
wanted  to  get  the  To'lowim- Woman  for  themselves.  She  saw 
them,  watched  them  for  a  long  time,  and  finally  let  go  of  her 
husband,  and  tried  to  seize  one  of  these  others.  She  missed 
him,  and  ran  after  him.  There  were  thousands  of  others 
floating  about;  and  she  tried  to  seize,  now  one,  now  the  other, 
but  always  failed,  and  so  was  lost  in  the  valley.  She  said, 
"When  people  speak  of  the  olden  times  by  and  by,  people  will 
say  that  this  woman  lost  her  husband,  and  tried  to  get  others, 
but  lost  them,  and  went  crazy  and  died."  She  went  on  then, 
and  died  before  she  got  out  of  the  valley.  The  butterfly-man 
she  had  lost  went  on,  got  through  the  valley,  and  came  to  his 
home. 

ij.  The  Mountain-Lion,  the  Robin,  and  the  Frog-Woman. 

One  day  while  Mountain-Lion  was  hunting,  he  saw  down 
the  valley  a  lot  of  Robins  gathering  worms.     He  saw  most 

1  Told  at  Genesee. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  97 

go  away,  and  then  he  went  down  to  see  if  he  could  get  one  for 
a  wife.  This  he  did,  and  went  away  with  her  and  married 
her.  They  had  a  child  in  a  few  days.  As  they  travelled  they 
came  to  a  lake;  and  the  Lion  said,  "You  go  around  this  side, 
follow  this  trail,  and  beyond  the  other  end  of  the  lake  you  will 
find  my  father's  camp.  If  on  the  way  you  hear  any  one  call 
from  the  lake,  don't  look  around  or  listen.  I  will  go  around 
the  other  side,  and  hunt."  So  they  parted,  and  went  their 
separate  ways. 

When  Robin  was  nearly  past  the  lake,  she  heard  some  one 
calling.  She  did  not  look  around,  however.  The  call  was 
repeated,  "Sister,  wait  for  me!"  Now,  Robin  had  a  sister, 
and  thought  that  it  was  she  who  was  calling:  so  she  looked 
around,  and  was  at  once  swallowed  by  Frog.  Frog  then  took 
the  child,  and  kept  on  to  the  house  of  Lion's  father.  Lion 
came  back,  and,  although  his  wife  looked  all  right,  he  thought 
something  was  the  trouble.  Frog  ate  a  great  deal  that  night, 
more  than  his  wife  had  ever  eaten.  When  night  came,  Lion 
turned  his  back  on  his  supposed  wife,  and  refused  to  yield  to 
her  enticements.  Next  day  the  child  began  to  cry,  and  could 
not  be  comforted.  That  night  Lion  slept  with  his  wife,  and 
found  that  she  was  covered  with  scales.  In  the  morning  he 
told  his  parents  to  give  his  wife  a  large  dish  of  wild  oats  to 
parch,  and  to  keep  up  a  very  hot  fire.  They  did  so,  and  Lion 
went  off  hunting.  Frog  was  much  overcome  by  the  great 
heat  of  the  fire,  and  begged  to  be  let  off,  but  the  parents  re 
fused.  Soon  she  weakened  and  died  from  the  heat.  By  and 
by  Lion  came  back.  He  ripped  open  the  body  of  the  woman 
with  his  claws  (his  knife),  and  found  his  real  wife,  Robin,  in 
side.  He  took  her  body  to  the  lake,  laid  it  in  the  water  over 
night,  and  in  the  morning  she  had  come  to  life  again.  Then 
they  lived  together  without  any  more  trouble. 

14.  The  Cannibal  Head.1 

A  man  once  had  a  bad  dream.  He  told  it  to  his  wife  and 
child.  He  dreamed  that  he  ate  himself  up.  He  went  out 

1  Told  at  Chico.     Compare  Gurtin,  /.  c.,  pp.  325  et  seq. 
{June,  igos\  7 


98      Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

the  next  day  with  his  family  to  pick  pine-nuts.  He  climbed 
a  tree  and  picked  a  great  many  nuts.  Then  he  came  down 
and  told  his  boy  to  go  up.  The  lad  did  so,  and,  while  picking, 
dropped  one  of  the  pine-burrs,  which  hit  his  father  on  the  leg. 
It  scratched  the  skin  off,  and  the  man's  leg  began  to  bleed. 
The  man  wiped  the  blood  off,  then  he  began  to  lick  it  off.  It 
tasted  good,  and  he  at  once  began  to  tear  off  pieces  of  his  flesh 
and  eat  them.  He  kept  on  till  nothing  was  left  but  his  head 
and  shoulders.  Then  he  began  to  bounce  about,  killing  and 
eating  people.  Every  one  ran  away.  The  man  finally 
bounced  into  a  river,  and  was  never  seen  again.  He  fell  into 
the  river  at  Ya'itilli,  on  the  western  side. 

15.  The  Stolen  Brother.1 

Mo'loko  stole  one  of  two  brothers.  The  remaining  brother 
sought  everywhere  for  him,  but  in  vain.  He  asked  Moon  if 
he  had  seen  his  brother.  Moon  said , ' '  Yes ,  Mo'loko  took  him. ' ' 
The  boy  was  delighted  to  hear  that  Moon  knew  who  had 
carried  off  his  brother,  and  asked  how  he  could  get  to  the 
place  where  Mo'loko  lived.  Moon  replied  that  he  could  not 
go  there  by  himself,  but  that  he  must  have  some  one  to  help 
him.  The  boy  therefore  got  Lark  (Pi'pbe1)  to  aid  him.  He 
asked  Lark  to  take  him  along,  but  the  latter  replied  that  he 
was  not  large  enough.  He  offered,  however,  to  get  his 
cousin  Eagle  (WJ'bem),  who  would  be  able  to  carry  the  boy. 
The  boy  asked  Eagle  if  he  was  strong  enough  to  take  him,  and 
Eagle  replied,  "Yes,  but  I  can't  bring  both  you  and  your 
brother  back.  I  must  get  my  uncle  to  help  us."  So  he  did, 
and  Bald-Eagle  (O'poli)  came.  Eagle  asked,  "Who  will  do 
the  killing?"  Bald-Eagle  refused,  on  the  ground  that  Mo' 
loko  might  see  him.  All  said  the  same  except  Lark,  who 
agreed  to  kill  him.  All  then  went  off  to  the  east,  to  a  high 
mountain  where  Mo'loko  lived.  The  Eagles  hid  the  brother 
in  a  tree,  while  Lark  went  back  of  Mo'loko,  caught  him 
around  the  neck,  and  killed  him.  Then  Eagle  took  one  of  the 
brothers,  and  Bald-Eagle  took  the  other,  and  carried  them 
back  home. 

1  Told  at  Chico. 


1 90  2.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  99 

16.  Lizard  and  Grisly  Bear.1 

In  the  south  there  were  many  bad  Grisly  Bears.  They 
used  to  travel,  toward  the  north,  where  all  kinds  of  people 
lived,  and  kill  as  many  of  them  as  they  could.  Every  spring 
they  would  go  and  kill  some.  They  kept  doing  this  until 
they  had  killed  all  the  people  but  two,  —  Lizard  and  his 
grandmother.  The  grandmother  did  not  want  Lizard  to  go 
out'  anywhere,  for  fear  he  too  would  be  killed.  One  day  he 
slipped  out,  and  got  away.  He  went  down  towards  the  edge 
of  the  valley,  and  looked  around.  While  he  was  there,  one 
of  the  Bears  came  along,  stopped  in  the  middle  of  the  valley, 
and  began  to  sing  and  dance.  Lizard  was  watching,  and 
called  out,  "You  big-headed  thing,  what  are  you  dancing 
there  for?  That  valley  does  not  belong  to  you,  you  big- 
rumped  thing!"  When  the  Bear  heard  this,  he  sat  down 
and  said  to  himself,  "I  thought  that  I  had  killed  all  the 
people  about  here.  I  wonder  what  that  was  that  called  out, 
and  where  it  is.  I  have  not  had  any  meat  for  a  long  time, 
and  I  am  hungry  for  meat."  So  he  began  to  dance  again,  to 
see  if  he  could  make  the  person  talk  again,  and  so  find  out 
where  he  was.  When  the  Bear  began  to  dance,  Lizard  said 
the  same  thing  that  he  said  before.  He  was  standing  on  the 
edge  of  a  rocky  bluff  that  was  on  the  side  of  the  valley.  By 
and  by  the  Bear  found  out  where  Lizard  was.  He  said  to 
himself,  "  I  think  I  will  go  halfway  to  the  bluff  and  dance  and 
sing  again,  then  I  can  tell  just  where  the  person  is."  He  did 
so,  and  again  Lizard  made  the  same  reply.  The  Bear  thought, 
' '  I  will  go  to  the  edge  of  the  valley  and  dance  again.  I  won 
der  how  I  missed  this  person  before.  I  hunted  all  over  the 
country,  and  thought  that  I  had  killed  them  all."  He 
danced  again,  and  Lizard  replied.  The  Bear  looked  care 
fully,  looked  everywhere,  but  could  not  see  Lizard,  although 
he  could  hear  him  whenever  he  spoke.  The  Bear  went  up  on 
the  bluff,  and  hunted  a  long  time,  and  finally  saw  Lizard.  He 
was  in  a  crack  between  two  stones,  watching  the  valley.  The 
Bear  came  up  and  said,  "Was  it  you  that  was  shouting,  you 

1  Told  'at  Genesee. 


TOO   Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

little  thing?"  Then  the  Bear  gave  a  loud  shout.  Then  he 
said,  "What  are  you  staying  here  for?  People  such  as  you 
have  no  right  to  be  here,  Tell  me,  were  you  shouting  at  me 
and  calling  me  names?"  Lizard  said,  "Yes."  Then  the 
Bear  said,  "You  will  have  to  die.  I  have  come  to  kill  you. 
I  don't  want  people  like  you  around  here."  Lizard  had 
found  a  small  flint  in  his  camp  before  he  came  out.  His 
father  had  left  it.  Lizard  had  this  with  him,  was  holding  it 
underneath  his  body  so  that  people  could  not  see  it.  He  said, 
"Well,  kill  me,  then,  if  you  want  to."  Then  he  got  up  on  his 
hands  and  feet,  and  the  Bear  jumped  at  him  with  his  mouth 
open  to  swallow  him;  but  Lizard  jumped  down  the  Bear's 
throat  so  quickly,  that  he  had  no  chance  to  bite  him.  Lizard 
had  his  flint  knife  between  his  hands  when  he  jumped ;  and 
when  he  was  inside  the  Bear,  he  began  to  cut  him  all  up,  and 
by  and  by  the  Bear  died.1  Then  Lizard  said,  "People  here 
will  not  talk  about  you  and  say  that  you  were  a  great  man. 
They  will  not  say  that  you  killed  all  the  people  in  this  country. 
Go  back  to  your  own  country  in  the  south.  Stay  there.  You 
will  be  a  Pu'suni,  a  bad  Grisly  Bear."  Then  he  cut  out  the 
Bear's  heart,  and  went  home  to  his  grandmother.  When  he 
got  back,  she  began  to  dance.  She  danced  on  the  Bear's 
heart  till  it  was  all  ground  up  to  nothing.  Then  they  two 
staid  there  always. 

17.  The  Skunk  and  the  Beetle* 

Skunk  and  Beetle  were  cousins.  One  day  Skunk  said, 
"Let  us  go  over  to  Honey  Lake  and  get  some  reeds  for  ar 
rows."  Beetle  agreed,  and  off  they  went.  Beetle  was  a 
slow  traveller,  however;  and  Skunk  left  him  behind,  and 
went  on  alone.  By  and  by,  having  collected  all  the  reeds  he 
wished,  he  came  back,  and  met  Beetle  still  on  the  way.  Beetle 
said,  "Your  arrows  are  not  good:  throw  them  away  and  get 
some  more."  So  Skunk  agreed.  While  they  were  at  the 
lake,  they  were  attacked  by  the  enemy.  Beetle  shot  at  them 

1  See  Boas,  /.  c.,  pp.  3,  51,  74,  101,  171,  212,  256,  315;  Petitot,  Traditions  indien- 
nes  du  Canada,  etc.,  p.  319;  Dorsey,  The  Cegiha  Language,  p.  34;  Kroeber,  /.  c.,  p. 
270;  Farrand,  Chilcotin,  p.  40.  a  Told  at  Genesee. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  IOI 

with  his  bad  odor,  till  this  was  completely  exhausted,  and  the 
men  were  closing  in.  Then  Skunk  walked  about  with  his  tail 
held  high  up  in  the  air.  The  tip  of  it  just  reached  above  the 
top  of  the  grass,  and  all  the  enemy  shot  at  the  tail,  so  Skunk 
himself  escaped.  After  a  while  Skunk  got  close  to  the  people, 
and,  shooting  them,  he  killed  them  all.  Then  the  two  col 
lected  their  arrows  and  came  back. 

18.  The  Wolf  makes  the  Snow  Cold.1 

Wolf  and  his  wife  lived  toward  the  southwest.  They  had  a 
daughter,  who  was  married  and  had  many  children.  The 
children  were  out  playing,  when  it  began  to  snow.  It  kept 
snowing  till  the  snow  was  up  to  people's  knees.  Then  it 
cleared  off.  Next  morning  the  children  went  out  and  began 
to  play.  They  made  a  great  deal  of  noise,  shouting  and  call 
ing  to  each  other,  as  they  played  in  front  of  their  grandfather's 
house.  The  children  played  all  day,  and  next  morning  they 
began  again.  Toward  night  the  old  Wolf  grew  angry.  He 
wanted  to  sleep,  but  the  children  kept  him  awake.  It  was 
the  first  time  the  children  had  ever  seen  snow,  that  was  why 
they  made  so  much  noise.  Wolf  said  to  his  wife,  "I  will  teach 
those  children  something."  Then  he  went  outside  the  house, 
and  urinated  in  the  snow,  all  about  the  camp.  That  made 
the  snow  cold:  before,  it  had  been  warm.  The  children 
played  about  a  while ;  but  their  fingers  and  toes  soon  got  cold, 
and  they  went  into  their  mother's  house  to  warm  themselves, 
and  cried.  Then  Wolf  went  back  into  the  house,  and  went  to 
sleep.  That  is  the  way  he  spoiled  the  snow. 

IQ.  Thunder  and  his  Daughter.'1 

Thunder  and  his  daughter  lived  together.  He  had  finger 
nails  that  were  like  long  claws.  The  daughter  wanted  to 
marry  Flute-Player  (Ya'lulupe'),  who  was  good-looking.  Her 
father,  however,  did  not  want  her  to  do  so.  The  girl  said, 
"I  will  marry  him."  Then  her  father  replied,  "If  you  do,  I 
will  tear  up  the  ground  and  roar  so  that  it  will  make  you 

1  Told  at  Genesee.  a  Told  at  Chico. 


I O2    Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

deaf."  The  girl  replied,  "I  can  do  that  also."  She  went 
away  then,  and  her  father  could  not  find  her.  He  went 
everywhere,  looking  for  her,  went  as 'a  big  thunder-cloud. 
At  last  he  found  her  far  away  in  the  mountains.  He  asked 
her  where  she  had  been,  and  she  replied,  "Nowhere."  He 
said,  "I  know  better,  you  have  been  to  see  Flute-Player." 
Finally  the  girl  confessed.  Then  her  father  began  to  roar 
and  tear  up  the  ground,  but  failed  to  disturb  his  daughter. 
When  he  found  he  could  not  scare  her,  she  said,  "  Let  me  try." 
She  began  to  roar  and  tear  up  the  ground,  as  he  had  done,  and 
soon  killed  him.  If  she  had  not  done  so,  he  would  have  gone 
on  killing  people  till  to-day.  After  she  had  killed  the  old 
man,  she  went  away  and  married  Flute- Player. 

20.  Huptoli.1 

A  long  time  ago  there  was  a  burning  at  Oregon  Creek. 
Some  of  the  people  went  down  to  the  river,  and  found  there  a 
one-legged  man  called  Huptoli,  who  lived  in  the  water. 
They  caught  him,  and  carried  him  up  to  the  top  of  the  hill, 
and  laid  him  down  while  all  rested.  Huptoli,  however, 
jumped  up  and  bounced  back  to  the  river.  He  was  never 
seen  again.  All  the  people  who  had  caught  him  at  once  fell 
asleep,  and  did  not  wake  up  for  over  two  days,  and  then  only 
because  the  doctors  woke  them.  These  one-legged  people 
come  even  now  occasionally  and  take  washing  away  from  the 
women  at  the  river. 

21.  Big-Belly's  Son.2 

Big-Belly  lived  at  Ta'smam.  He  had  a  wife,  and  a  son 
who  went  off  hunting  in  the  mountains  and  staid  away  a  long 
time.  Big- Belly  could  not  walk  on  account  of  his  great  size, 
and  so  his  wife  went  out  every  day  to  gather  clover  for  them 
both.  She  would  go  out  in  the  morning,  bring  in  a  big  basket 
full  of  clover,  set  it  down  by  the  old  man,  and  then  take 
another  basket  and  go  out  again.  The  old  man  was  eating 
all  the  time.  One  morning  she  went  out  and  came  back 

1  Told  at  Mooretown.  2  Told  at  Genesee. 


1902.]  Dixon^  Maidu  Myths.  103 

early.  She  said,  "I  see  something  coming  that  looks  like 
people."  Big-Belly  replied,  "At  this  time  of  year  it  is  always 
that  way.  A  person  thinks  that  he  sees  people.  Whenever 
any  one  sees  the  wind  blowing  the  grass,  he  thinks  that 
people  are  coming."  The  woman  went  out  again,  saw  the 
people  coming,  saw  them  plainly  and  very  near.  She  ran 
back  to  the  house  and  told  her  husband,  "Some  people  are 
after  us.  I  see  them."  Then  the  old  man  said,  "Well,  help 
me  up,  and  we  will  run  away."  When  he  had  said  this,  she 
tried  to  get  him  out,  but  the  people  got  there  before  she 
succeeded.  These  people  were  Ko'mbo  people  from  Mill 
Creek.  When  they  came  near,  they  began  to  shoot  at  the 
old  man,  and  filled  his  belly  full  of  arrows  and  killed  him. 
They  killed  the  woman  too,  and  then  went  off  home. 

By  and  by  the  son  came  back  from  his  hunting.  The 
woman  had  been  with  child  before  she  was  killed.  When  the 
son  found  that  she  was  dead,  he  felt  of  her,  felt  something 
move,  something  that  was  warm.  So  he  cut  the  woman  open, 
found  the  child,  took  it  out,  and  saw  that  it  was  a  girl.  He 
made  a  cradle-board,  put  the  baby  on  it,  and  wrapped  it  up. 
Then  he  began  to  cry.  He  cried  a  long  time,  then  took  the 
child  with  him  far  off  into  the  mountains  where  he  had  been 
hunting.  He  would  take  deer-liver,  pound  it  up  fine,  mix  it 
with  water,  and  give  it  to  the  child.  After  a  few  days  the 
child  grew  rapidly,  and  soon  the  man  could  leave  cooked 
meat  with  the  child,  which  she  would  eat  when  hungry, 
while  he  went  off  to  hunt.  He  would  be  gone  all  day,  and 
not  get  back  till  night.  One  day  he  came  back  and  heard  the 
child  crying.  When  he  reached  home,  he  saw  that  Old- Frog- 
Woman  was  there,  and  that  she  was  holding  the  child  in  her 
arms,  and  was  dancing  with  it.  The  child  was  nearly  dead. 
The  man  said  nothing,  but  took  the  child  away,  went  for 
water,  washed  the  child's  face,  and  gave  it  something  to  eat. 
After  supper  he  went  to  sleep  without  speaking  to  Frog- 
Woman.  She  was  sitting  there,  and  said,  "The  child  was 
afraid  of  me.  She  did  not  know  me,  that  is  why  she  cried." 
In  the  morning  when  the  man  woke  up,  Frog- Woman  was 
gone.  The  man  tried  to  feed  the  child,  but  it  kept  looking  at 


IO4   Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

him  and  crying.  He  thought  something  was  the  trouble. 
He  found  that  while  he  had  been  asleep.  Frog- Woman  had 
taken  off  his  scalp,  and  he  had  not  known  it.  He  only  found 
it  out  by  the  fact  that  his  sister  was  all  the  time  looking  at 
him;  and  then  his  head  began  to  itch,  and  when  he  put  up 
his  hand  to  scratch  it,  he  found  his  head  was  all  over  blood. 
He  said  to  the  child,  ''Stop  crying.  The  old  woman  took  my 
scalp.  I  am  your  brother.  Don't  be  afraid  of  me.  It  is 
because  she  took  my  scalp  that  I  look  different."  Then  the 
child  stopped  crying.  Next  morning  he  began  to  carry  a  lot 
of  wood,  and  pile  it  up  near  the  house.  Then  he  began  to 
cook  meat,  pounding  it  up  fine  for  the  child.  Then  he  said, 
"  I  am  going  away.  You  must  stay  here."  Then  he  wrapped 
the  child  up  carefully,  and  said,  "You  must  stay  here.  If  I 
am  away  long,  untie  yourself."  Then  he  built  a  big  fire  of 
oak-wood,  with  lots  of  coals,  and  covered  it  over  with  plenty 
of  earth.  Finally  he  stuck  up  his  scratching-stick  overhead, 
and  said,  "When  you  see  that  stick  drop  in  front  of  you,  you 
will  know  that  I  am  killed.  If  it  drops,  take  it,  and  make  a 
hole  in  the  coals  with  it,  then  crawl  in  and  burn  yourself." 
Then  he  went  out,  found  a  lot  of  moss,  and  made  a  wig  so 
that  he  looked  like  a  woman.  He  took  an  old  basket  that 
had  been  his  mother's,  put  it  on  his  back,  and  made  an  apron 
and  put  it  on.  Then  he  went  off. 

There  was  another  country  far  off  to  the  west,  whence  Old- 
Frog-Woman  had  come.  She  had  carried  off  the  man's 
scalp  to  that  country;  and  when  he  reached  there,  the  people 
were  having  a  dance  around  it.  Before  he  came  to  that 
place,  however,  he  gathered  a  lot  of  roots,  pounded  them  up 
fine,  and  made  himself  look  like  a  woman.  He  had  a  cane; 
and  when  he  reached  the  place  where  the  people  were  dancing 
about  his  scalp,  he  acted  like  an  old  woman  who  was  very 
feeble.  He  slipped  his  apron  around  to  one  side,  so  that 
people  could  see  that  he  was  a  woman.  He  went  up  to  some 
of  the  women,  and  sat  down.  They  looked  at  him,  and  said, 
"  Poor  old  woman !  where  did  you  come  from  ?"  Then  they 
looked  again,  and  saw  that  she  had  hardly  any  apron  on. 
They  said,  "Hasn't  some  one  an  apron  to  give  her?"  So 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  105 

they  gave  her  a  new  apron,  and  were  wondering  who  she  was 
and  where  she  came  from.  Every  one  came  to  look  at  her  to 
see  if  she  were  playing  some  trick.  Some  said,  "Yes,  she  is 
an  old  woman.  We  have  seen  her  before."  One  person  said, 
"No,  she  does  not  belong  here;"  but  the  others  did  not  pay 
any  attention  to  what  this  person  said.  While  he  sat  there, 
the  man  looked  around,  and  saw  his  scalp  tied  to  the  top  of  a 
tall  pole.  Towards  morning  the  people  grew  tired,  and  went 
to  sleep.  When  they  were  all  asleep,  the  man  got  up,  climbed 
up  the  pole,  got  his  scalp,  came  down,  and  started  off  for  his 
home.  When  he  reached  there,  he  found  his  sister  still  alive. 
He  said  to  his  scratching-stick,  "  Let  me  see  you  fall.  Let  me 
see  what  you  would  have  done  if  I  had  been  killed."  He  had 
not  yet  shown  himself  to  his  sister.  He  was  outside,  and 
wanted  to  see  what  she  would  do  if  the  stick  fell.  In  a  mo 
ment  the  stick  fell,  and  the  child  saw  it.  She  was  eating, 
but  stopped,  and  began  to  unwrap  herself.  When  she  was 
unwrapped,  she  took  the  stick,  and  began  to  dig  a  hole  in  the 
coals.  Then  the  man  came  in  and  said,  "Sister,  what  are 
you  doing?  Why  are  you  digging  out  the  coals?"  Then  he 
told  her  about  himself,  and  they  lived  there  always. 

22.  Mountain-Lion  and  his  Wives.1 

Mountain-Lion  lived  at  Na'kan  se'wi.  He  went  out  hunt 
ing,  came  home,  and  lay  on  the  ground,  playing  a  flute.  By 
and  by  two  girls  came  in  and  sat  down,  on  each  side  of  him. 
He  got  up,  cooked  some  meat  for  them,  and  gave  it  to  them. 
They  ate  it,  and  went  to  sleep  for  the  night  as  his  wives.  He 
said,  "This  is  the  way  we  marry.  If  we  sleep  together,  and 
find  ourselves  here  in  the  morning,  we  shall  be  married." 
After  a  while  he  had  a  child  by  each  wife.  Soon  the  children 
began  to  creep  about,  and  get  outside  the  camp.  A  short 
distance  off  they  found  two  good-looking  girls.  Next  day 
the  father  went  off,  and  did  not  come  back  that  night.  When 
he  came  back  the  day  after,  he  had  killed  some  deer.  The 
two  children  found  their  father  the  next  evening  with  the  two 

1  Told  at  Genesee. 


106    Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

girls  they  had  found.  He  said,  "People  can  leave  their 
wives  and  children,  and  get  others.  That  is  how  it  will  be  in 
this  world."  The  first  two  wives  still  staid  in  their  camp, 
and  paid  no  attention  to  what  Mountain- Lion  had  done.  He 
never  went  back  to  his  first  wives,  but  went  off  hunting,  and 
at  night  lay  playing  on  his  flute.  The  first  wives  and  the  two 
children  had  now  eaten  up  all  the  food  that  Lion  had  brought 
before  he  left  them.  The  children  were  now  able  to  run  about. 
Every  time  Lion  would  come  back  from  hunting,  they  would 
go  over  to  his  camp,  thinking  to  get  some  meat.  They  would 
watch  their  father  skinning*  the  deer,  to  see  if  he  would  give 
them  any.  Lion  would  cut  out  the  place  where  the  arrow 
had  entered,  and  where  the  blood  had  settled,  and  give  this 
poor  piece  to  the  children.  He  would  throw  it  at  them,  and 
it  would  stick  to  them.  They  would  pick  it  off,  and  run  with 
it  to  their  mothers.  The  children  would  think  that  they  were 
getting  a  great  thing,  but  the  mothers  would  cry  about  it ;  but 
they  would  cook  it  and  eat  it  to  keep  from  starving.  When 
ever  Lion  would  come  home  with  meat,  the  children  would 
cry  out,  "Here  comes  father  with  meat!"  then  they  would 
run  over  to  get  what  he  gave  them.  One  day  the  mothers 
said  to  themselves,  "  How  can  we  make  a  living  if  the  children 
do  not  go  to  their  father? "  One  said,  " He  is  not  treating  our 
children  rightly."  Then  she  cried.  One  said,  "  Do  you  know 
of  any  place  where  Lion  ever  lost  a  piece  of  flint  ?  If  we  could 
find  a  piece  of  flint,  we  could  make  an  arrow  for  the  children, 
and  teach  them  to  shoot,  and  by  and  by  they  could  kill  their 
own  game." 

One  day  the  children  asked  their  mothers,  "How  is  it  that 
father  makes  such  pretty  music  with  his  flute?"  Whenever 
they  spoke  of  Lion  as  their  father,  it  made  the  women  cry, 
One  said,  "  Let  us  go  and  make  flutes.  If  they  get  to  playing 
on  them,  they  may  forget  about  their  father."  In  the  morn 
ing  early  they  went  off  to  make  the  flutes.  When  they  were 
finished,  they  put  them  away  in  the  house  where  they  could 
not  be  seen.  After  a  while  the  father  came  home,  and  began 
to  play  on  his  flute.  The  children  went  up  on  the  top  of  the 
house,  and  listened  to  the  music.  The  mothers  said,  "When 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  107 

it  gets  daylight,  we  will  go  off  before  the  children  know  it,  and 
make  them  some  bows  and  arrows.  When  we  get  them 
made,  we  will  show  them  to  the  children."  They  felt  sorry 
for  the  children,  who  were  as  if  they  had  no  father,  yet  all  the 
time  they  had  one.  When  the  children  came  in  from  playing f 
the  mothers  gave  them  the  flutes,  and  told  them  that  that  was 
what  their  father  was  playing  on.  They  said,  "Do  as  your 
father  does.  Blow  in  the  flute,  and  learn  to  play."  The 
children  tried,  almost  succeeded,  but  failed.  Then  they  went 
to  sleep,  and  the  women  went  off  to  make  the  bows  and 
arrows.  When  the  children  got  up,  they  went  out  on  the 
side-hill,  and  saw  a  deer-track.  They  came  home  and  told 
their  mothers  that  they  had  seen  a  deer's  track,  and  showed 
them  how  it  looked,  making  similar  tracks  with  their  fingers. 
They  said  to  the  women,  "That  is  the  kind  of  foot  the  deer 
have  that  father  kills.  If  we  had  bows  and  arrows,  we  could 
kill  them  too.  If  you  will  make  us  some  bows  and  arrows, 
we  will  go  hunting  to-morrow."  When  they  had  said  this, 
the  mothers  gave  the  children  the  bows  and  arrows  they  had 
made,  and  said,  "Here  is  what  your  father  uses  to  kill  deer. 
He  gets  close  up  before  he  shoots.  Don't  go  far  away.  It  is 
a  bad  country,  and  you  might  get  killed."  When  the  children 
had  gone,  the  mothers  cried. 

The  two  children  had  not  gone  far,  before  they  came  to  a 
fawn's  track.  The  younger  said,  "I'll  look  out  for  the  trail, 
and  do  you  watch  for  the  deer."  The  younger  of  the  children 
was  the  smarter.  He  said  to  the  other,  "When  you  see  the 
deer,  you  had  better  let  me  shoot,  for  fear  you  might  miss  it." 
They  followed  the  trail  for  a  time,  and  then,  looking  across  a 
canyon,  they  saw  a  fawn  lying  there  asleep.  The  older  child 
crept  up,  got  close  to  it,  shot  it,  and  killed  it.  The  children 
left  it  lying  there,  and  went  back  and  told  their  mothers. 
Then  they  all  went  back;  and  the  mothers  skinned  the  fawn, 
and  cut  it  up,  and  brought  it  back  to  the  camp,  keeping  the 
meat  for  the  two  children.  The  women  were  cleaning  up 
the  camp  one  day  after  this,  and  found  a  piece  of  flint  which 
Lion  had  forgotten.  By  this  time  the  two  boys  had  learned 
to  play  the  flute  nearly  as  well  as  their  father.  From  the 


Io8    Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

flint  the  women  made  some  large  arrows,  and  gave  them  to 
the  children.  They  went  out,  and  with  these  arrows  next 
day  killed  a  bigger  deer  than  before.  This  time  they  brought 
it  home  themselves.  They  said  to  each  other,  "Even  if  our 
father  has  left  us,  we  can  kill  deer,  and  keep  our  mothers 
alive."  The  third  time  they  went  hunting,  they  went  on  and 
on  till  they  reached  a  large  mountain,  where  they  separated. 
The  younger  said  to  the  older,  "  If  you  go  back  down  the  ridge, 
kick  the  pine-needles  about,  so  that  I  shall  know  that  you 
have  gone  that  way."  Then  they  separated,  and  the  younger 
killed  a  deer.  He  brought  it  back  to  where  they  had  sepa 
rated,  and  saw  the  pine-needles  kicked  about;  and  when  he 
got  home,  he  found  that  the  other  brother  had  also  killed  a 
deer.  The  mothers  were  very  glad.  When  the  two  children 
came  back,  they  began  to  play  on  their  flutes,  and  now  were 
able  to  play  better  than  their  father. 

The  next  day  they  went  out  again,  and  sat  on  the  top  of  a 
high  mountain,  to  rest  and  look  out  over  the  country.  Said 
one,  "This  is  the  mountain  where  father  kills  his  deer,  I  think. 
I  think  we  will  do  the  same  on  the  same  mountain."  The 
younger  said,  "When  father  kills  a  big  deer,  he  always  man 
ages  to  get  it  home  by  the  time  the  sun  sets  over  the  mountain. 
If  you  come  to  a  big  deer's  track,  follow  it,  and  I  will  do  the 
same.  Don't  pay  any  attention  to  me,  I'll  get  home  some 
time."  The  younger  followed  a  deer,  killed  it,  and,  although 
it  was  a  big  one,  he  got  home  with  it  just  at  sundown.  He 
brought  it  home  at  the  time  he  said  he  would.  The  boys  now 
saw  that  their  father  had  a  black  bear's  skin  to  sit  on,  and 
said  to  each  other,  "  I  wonder  if  we  could  not  kill  one  of  those 
animals  too."  So  they  went  off  to  the  west,  as  usual,  to  the 
same  mountain.  The  younger  said,  "Our  mothers'  deer-skin 
blankets  are  nearly  worn  out.  I  wonder  if  we  can't  kill 
something  to  make  a  new  pair."  The  other  said,  "We  will 
kill  deer  again  to-day,  and  carry  them  home,  and  think  about 
the  other  things."  That  night  Lion  brought  home  a  deer, 
and  stood  by  his  camp  watching  the  two  boys  as  they  brought 
in  their  game.  He  had  never  done  this  before.  Next  day 
the  younger  said,  "  If  we  go  off  to-day,  let  us  go  another  way: 


1902.]  Dicton,  Maidu  Myths.  109 

let  us  go  to  the  north,  and  try  to  get  something  for  blankets." 
When  they  had  gone  about  halfway  up  a  large  mountain,  they 
stopped  for  a  rest.  The  younger  said,  "Let  us  go  down  to  the 
Padi'tim  Ya'manmanto.  Do  you  keep  above,  and  I  will 
go  along  lower  down.  We  will  keep  the  same  distance  apart. 
We  shall  get  home  some  time."  Each  killed  a  black  bear,  and 
carried  it  home. 

Lion  was  much  interested  in  what  the  boys  did  now.  He 
was  watching  them  as  they  came  back.  That  same  night  he 
came  to  their  camp,  sat  down  by  the  door,  and  lighted  his 
pipe.  He  said,  "  If  a  man  leaves  his  wife,  after  a  while  he  can 
come  back  to  her.  That  is  what  people  will  say  about  it  by 
and  by."  Then  he  said  to  the  boys,  "In  the  morning  you 
can  go  hunting.  There  are  plenty  of  deer  in  the  hills." 
They  went  off  to  the  south,  and  Lion  followed.  When  they 
reached  the  top  of  a  mountain,  he  said,  "There  is  a  little  valley 
down  there."  Then  they  all  started  for  the  valley;  but  be 
fore  they  got  there,  they  stopped  for  a  rest,  and  Lion  took  a 
smoke.  When  they  got  to  the  edge  of  the  valley,  Lion  said, 
"Stop  and  look  to  see  how  many  bears  there  are,  and  where 
they  are."  The  two  boys  did  so,  and  saw  that  the  valley 
was  full  of  bears.  Lion  said,  "You  two  stay  here,  where 
there  is  an  opening,  and  I  will  go  down  and  scare  the  bears 
up."  So  the  two  staid  there,  while  Lion  went  down  into  the 
valley.  When  he  got  there,  the  bears  started  to  run  the 
wrong  way.  Two  bears  began  to  chase  him,  and  he  ran  back 
toward  the  boys,  he  ran  between  them;  and  when  the  bears 
came,  the  boys  shot  them,  but  did  not  kill  them.  The 
bears  began  to  chase  them,  so  they  separated  and  ran  all 
round  the  world.  When  they  got  to  the  end,  they  met,  but 
kept  on  again  till  they  came  to  the  place  where  they  started. 
When  the  two  boys  left,  chased  by  the  bears,  Lion  went  back 
to  the  camp  of  his  first  wives.  When  the  boys  got  back  to 
the  place  they  had  started  from,  the  bears  came  too,  and 
fought  each  other.  Each  had  been  chasing  one  of  the' boys. 
They  fought,  and  finally  killed  each  other.  Then  the  boys 
skinned  them,  and  took  the  hides  home.  They  staid  there, 
and  Lion  staid  there  too. 


ABSTRACTS. 

1.  Creation  Myth. 

In  the  beginning  all  was  water.  Turtle  and  Pehe'ipe'  float  on  it 
on  a  raft.  Earth-Initiate  comes  down  from  the  sky  to  the  raft. 
Turtle  dives  and  brings  up  mud  from  bottom.  Of  this,  Earth- 
Initiate  makes  world.  He  calls  Sun  and  Moon  to  rise,  and  makes 
the  stars.  Coyote  and  Rattlesnake  come  up  out  of  the  ground. 
Earth-Initiate  makes  animals;  makes  people  out  of  earth,  and  vivifies 
them  by  sleeping  and  sweating  beside  them.  Coyote  attempts  to 
imitate,  but  fails  to  make  satisfactory  people.  Earth-Initiate  wants 
people  to  live  without  work,  and  to  be  restored  to  life  and  youth  in 
lake.  Coyote  wishes  the  opposite,  and  prevails.  Earth- Initiate 
leaves  the  world  and  goes  above.  Coyote  tells  people  to  prepare 
for  a  "burning."  In  the  races  before  the  ceremony,  Coyote's  son 
is  bitten  by  Rattlesnake  and  killed.  Coyote  in  vain  tries  to  get 
revoked  his  decision  that  men  should  die.  Soon  after  this  every 
couple  suddenly  speak  a  different  language.  Ku'ksu,  the  first  man, 
talks  all  these  languages,  and  gives  to  each  couple  the  names  for 
things,  their  laws,  etc.;  sends  them  to  their  homes.  Then  Ku'ksu, 
and  his  wife  Morning-Star,  go  away.  Coyote  follows;  finds  Ku'ksu 
in  spirit  cave  with  Coyote's  son;  not  allowed  to  enter  or  eat.  Coyote 
returns  home,  kills  himself,  and  goes  back  to  cave;  finds  Ku'ksu  and 
all  gone  above.  Coyote  goes  off  to  the  west. 

2.  Earth-Namer. 

Coyote  and  Earth-Namer  quarrel  as  to  whether  man^ shall  have 
an  easy  and  deathless  life.  Coyote  prevails,  and  declares  that  man 
must  work  and  die.  Earth-Namer  goes  off  angry.  Coyote's  son  is 
killed  by  Rattlesnake.  Coyote  overtakes  Earth-Namer,  and  tries  in 
vain  to  have  his  own  decision  repealed.  Earth-Namer  travels  over 
country,  ridding  it  of  evil  beings;  instructs  Mink  how  to  kill  a  great 
snake,  and  with  its  fat  to  kill  the  women  who  try  to  kill  travellers 
by  urinating  on  them;  sharpens  the  bill  of  Crow,  and  causes  Fish- 
Hawk  to  choke;  escapes  from  and  kills  the  two  boys  who  kill  persons 
while  ferrying  them  across  stream;  kills  their  grandmother  as  well; 
scatters  roots  for  people  to  eat;  is  chased  by  Grisly-Bear,  who  causes 
conflagration,  from  which  Earth-Namer  escapes  by  hiding  under 
grass-roots;  goes  off  far  to  east,  and  lives  there  yet. 

[no] 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths. 


j.  The  Conqueror. 

Two  old  men  live  with  their  people  in  a  large  sweat-house.  Many 
people  are  killed  by  a  great  bird  when  hunting,  others  by  rattle 
snakes  when  shooting  ground-squirrels.  Wood-Bugs  kill  many  by 
dancing  against  people  and  knocking  them  about;  others  are  killed 
by  Man-Straightening-Old-Woman,  who  crushes  them  with  a  great 
rock;  still  others  die  as  result  of  following  trail  of  Elk.  All  the 
people  that  are  left  go  with  the  old  men  to  gamble.  Some  are  killed 
in  trying  to  swim  river  at  certain  spot;  others  fall  and  are  killed 
on  ice  floor  of  house  of  host;  others  are  killed  by  not  being  able  to 
drink  all  the  soup  offered  them.  The  two  old  men  alone  escape, 
and  return  to  their  daughter,  whom  they  left  at  home.  Daughter 
meets  Cloud-Man,  who  marries  her;  gives  her  two  bunches  of  feathers, 
which  shall  become  boys.  She  puts  them  away.  The  boys,  Always- 
eating  and  Conqueror,  come  out  and  surprise  old  men.  They  grow  up 
rapidly.  Conqueror  overcomes  all  the  beings  who  killed  the  people 
formerly;  goes  with  the  old  men  to  gamble,  as  before;  finds  opponent 
has  passage  through  his  body,  and  thus  cheats.  Conqueror,  with  help 
of  Sun,  closes  this  passage,  and  opens  one  in  his  own  body,  thus 
winning  all  his  people  back,  as  well  as  all  of  his  opponents.  He  then 
returns  home  with  old  men. 


4.  Ku'tsem  ye'poni. 

Old  woman  and  man  live  together.  She  puts  bead  in  basket,  and 
this  develops  into  a  boy.  He  grows  rapidly;  shows  great  power  and 
skill;  kills  bear  which  he  thinks  is  a  gopher;  kills  poisonous  insects 
that  try  to  overpower  him;  kills  woodpeckers  in  a  row  on  branch; 
kills  Elk  by  aid  of  two  magic  arrows,  with  help  and  advice  of  hand 
ful  of  earth;  meets  Coyote  and  gives  him  food.  Latter  returns 
again  and  again  in  different  guises  to  get  more;  finally  is  given  yellow- 
jackets  in  the  food,  and  is  killed.  Ku'tsem  ye'poni  goes  with  his 
grandfather  to  gamble  with  Old- North- Wind.  Floor  of  house  is  of 
slippery  snake-skin.  Beginning  to  lose,  he  finds  that  opponent  has 
passage  through  body.  He  closes  this,  and  opens  one  in  his  own 
body,  and  thus  wins.  Kills  the  Man- Straightening- Old- Woman. 


5.  Search  for  Fire. 

People  formerly  had  fire,  but  it  was  stolen  and  carried  off  by 
Thunder.  Deprived  of  fire,  people  cooked  by  having  red-eyed  bird 
look  at  meat.  Lizard  one  day  sees  smoke  of  real  fire,  tells  people, 
and  all  set  out  to  get  it.  Arrived  at  house  of  Thunder,  Mouse  steals 


I  I  2    Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

past  the  watcher,  who  is  asleep,  and  enters  house  through  smoke- 
hole;  cuts  strings  of  the  skirts  of  Thunder's  daughters;  fills  flute 
with  fire,  and  escapes.  All  people  run.  Dog  carries  some  fire  in  ear; 
deer  on  hock.  Thunder  and  daughters  pursue,  with  wind,  rain,  and 
hail.  Skunk  shoots  Thunder,  and  daughters  turn  back.  People  get 
safely  home. 

6.   Thunder  and  his  Daughter. 

Older  of  two  brothers  follows  Thunder's  daughter,  who  lures  him 
away.  He  shoots  arrow  ahead  of  her,  and  secures  it  from  her 
pack-basket  unharmed;  passes  through  a  field  of  rose-bushes  with 
aid  of  flint,  which  cuts  path  for  him;  follows  her  through  field  of 
rattlesnakes,  which  he  passes  by  aid  of  red-hot  stone  moccasins; 
camps  and  sleeps  with  her,  cutting  off  the  rattlesnake-teeth  that  sur 
round  her  vagina;  crosses  frozen  lake  by  aid  of  red-hot  stone  mocca 
sins;  fords  deep  river  with  help  of  duck- feather;  escapes  by  aid  of  same 
from  Valley-of-Death-by-Old-Age;  enters  house  of  Thunder;  survives 
poisoned  food;  breaks  pitch-log  for  fire- wood;  spears  great  fish  that 
nearly  pulls  him  under  water;  is  aided  by  the  water-ousels;  goes  to 
hunt  deer,  but  finds  grisly  bears;  escapes  from  these  to  swaying  ice- 
tree.  Bear  stays  below  to  kill  him.  He  shoots  bear  in  only  vul 
nerable  spot,  the  left  hind- foot;  returns  to  Thunder's  house,  takes 
daughter,  and  goes  home. 

7.   The  Loon-Woman. 

Loon  and  Eagle  live  with  many  brothers  in  great  sweat-house. 
Loon  falls  in  love  with  Wood-Bug,  one  of  her  brothers.  She  calls 
him  to  come  out  of  house,  but  all  others  are  sent  first.  She  attempts 
to  burn  house  by  magic.  Wood-Bug  at  last  comes,  and  is  carried  off 
by  Loon.  Loon  tries  to  make  Wood-Bug  her  husband,  but  by  a  ruse 
he  escapes  and  rejoins  people  at  house.  Spider  makes  a  net  and  car 
ries  all  others  up  to  sky,  away  from  burning  house.  Lizard  is  at 
bottom  of  net.  He  makes  a  hole  to  peep  through,  and  net  tears, 
letting  all  fall  down  into  burning  house.  Their  hearts  burst  and  fly 
out.  Loon  tries  to  catch  them  in  a  scoop,  but  misses  many.  She 
finally  goes  off,  wearing  all  she  catches  as  a  necklace.  Eagle  alone 
was  not  in  net,  and  so  escapes.  She  finds  Loon  on  the  lake  and  with 
water-ousels,  shoots  Loon  and  kills  her;  throws  hearts  into  water,  and 
thus  restores  brothers  to  life.  Two  hearts  are  missing,  Wood-Bug 
and  Fisher.  Two  girls  find  these  far  away,  embedded  in  ground. 
Their  tears  have  made  a  salt-lick.  The  girls  carry  hearts  home,  re 
store  them  to  life,  and  marry  the  men.  Eagle  goes  back  to  where  all 
lived  before. 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  113 

8.  Sun  and  Moon. 

1.  Sun  lives  in  north;    steals  children  of  Frog.     Frog  is  pursued. 
Sun  causes  patch  of  willows  to  grow,  that  Frog  stops  to  pick.     Frog 
finally  catches  up  to  Sun  just  as  latter  enters  ice-house.     Frog  gets 
to  smoke-hole,  and,  when  Sun  comes  out,  swallows  her.     Sun  swells 
and  bursts  Frog.     Sun  and  brother  then  dispute  as  to  which  shall 
travel  by  night.     Sun  tries  it,  but  stars  fall  in  love  with  her:    so 
brother  travels  by  night,  and  Sun  goes  by  day. 

2.  Sun  and  Moon  are  sister  and  brother;  live  in  stone  house  far 
to  east;    do  not  rise  at  first.     Many  animals  go   to   try   to   make 
them  rise.     All  fail.     Finally  Angle- Worm  and  Gopher  go.     Former 
bores  tiny  hole  down  outside,  and  then  up  into  house.     Gopher  follows 
with  bag  of  fleas;    sets  fleas  free.     Sun  and  Moon  are  badly  bitten; 
cannot  stand  it,  and  run  out.     Sun  is  afraid  to  travel  by  night;    so 
brother  goes  at  night,  and  she  goes  by  day. 

g.  Bear  and  Deer. 

1.  Bear  and  Deer  live  together.      Bear  kills   Deer;    and  children 
of  Deer,  in  revenge,  suffocate  Bear's  children  in  sweat-bath.     Deer 
run  away.     Bear  finds  her  children  dead;    calls  the  Deer,  but  they 
have  shot  berries  about,  which  answer  for  them.     Bear  is  misled  by 
this,  but  finally  finds  trail,  and  pursues.     Deer  get  on  a  rock  that 
stretches  till  very  tall.     Bear  asks  how  to  get  up.     They  tell  her  to 
open  mouth  and  shut  eyes.     Bear  does  so,  and  children  throw  hot 
rock  into  mouth  and  kill  her.     Deer  run  farther;  are  helped  across  river 
on  leg  of  Shitepoke.     Bear  comes  to,  and  asks  to  be  allowed  to  cross 
in  same  way,  is  thrown  off  in  mid-stream,  and  drowned. 

2.  Deer  and  Bear  are  neighbors.     Bear  kills  Deer  while  pretending 
to  louse  her.     Children  learn  o^Bhis  through  life-token.     They  kill 
Bear's  children  in  revenge,  throw  berries  about,  and  run  away.     Bear 
comes  home;    finds  her  children   dead;    calls   Deer's  children,  but 
berries  answer  for  them.     Bear  finally  finds  the  trail,  and  pursues. 
Deer  get  on  rock  that  stretches.     Bear  tries  to  climb,  but  is  killed  by 
hot  rock  dropped  into  mouth. 

3.  Bear  kills  Deer  while  pretending  to  louse  her.      Deer  children 
find  this  out,  kill  Bear's  child  in  revenge,  and  escape  to  tall  rock; 
cross  stream,  and  kill  Bear  by  throwing  hot  rock  into  mouth  as  she 
swims  across.     The  two  children  are  then  taken  up  into  sky  by 
Spider;    find  their  mother  there,  but  she  is  drowned  while  getting 
water  for  them. 

10.  Coyote  Tales. 

i.  Porcupine  kills  Elk,  but  has  no  knife  to  skin  him  with.  Coyote 
offers  to  lend  him  his  for  a  quarter  of  the  Elk.  When  Elk  is  skinned, 
\_June,  igo2^\  8 


I  1 4  Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

Coyote  proposes  a  jumping  contest  to  see  who  shall  have  the  whole; 
Porcupine  refuses.  Coyote  suggests  wrestling;  Porcupine  refuses. 
Coyote  suggests  race,  but  Porcupine  refuses,  finally  agrees  to  jump 
over  body  of  Elk.  Coyote  jumps,  but  Porcupine  causes  body  of 
Elk  to  rise,  and  Coyote  barely  gets  over.  Porcupine  then  jumps 
over  easily  and  wins.  Coyote,  however,  steals  half  the  meat  while 
Porcupine  is  not  looking,  and  runs  away. 

2.  Coyote  meets  Snow- Hunter.     Latter  proposes   that   their  dogs 
fight.     Coyote  asks  advice  of  his  excrement.     The  second  time  he  is 
told  he  will  win.     The  dogs  therefore  fight,  and  Coyote's  small  dog 
kills    Snow-Hunter's    large    one.      Coyote    then    fights    with    Snow- 
Hunter  and  kills  him. 

3.  Coyote  hears   some   one   call,  and  answers   against  his   grand 
mother's  wish.     The  caller  comes  near,  and  Coyote  buries  his  grand 
mother  to  prevent   any  harm  coming  to  her;    asks   advice   of  his 
excrement,  and  is  told  the  second  time  that  he  will  overcome  the 
stranger;    must  cover  his  belly  with  pitch.     The  stranger  proves  to 
be  Snow-Hunter.     He  proposes  that  each  cut  off  and  eat  the  fat 
from  the  other's  entrails.     Coyote  agrees.     Snow- Hunter  cuts  off  the 
pitch  from  Coyote,  thinking  it  fat.     He  eats  it.     Coyote  then  pretends 
to  cut  off  fat  from  Snow- Hunter,  but  rips  him  open  and  kills  him; 
digs  up  his  grandmother,  and  both  continue  to  live  as  before. 

4.  People  want  to  kill  all  the  Coyotes;    kill  all  but  one,  and  then 
catch    him,    and   put   him   in    a   split   tree.      Tree   is   hollow,    and 
Coyote  is  not  killed.     Woodpecker  makes  small  hole  in  tree.    Coyote 
asks  excrement  how  to  get  out,  and  is  told,  the  second  time,  that  he 
must  transform  himself  into  mist,  and  pass  out  of  the  hole.     He  does 
so,  returning  to 'his  natural  shape  afterwards.     He  is  again  caught  by 
the  people,  and  this  time  put  on  an  island  in  a  great  lake  far  to  the 
west.     He  asks  advice,  as  usual,  and  is  told  to  walk  to  land  on  the 
fog  as  it  rises  in  the  morning.     He  does  so,  and  returns  to  former 
home;    declares  he  cannot  be  killed,  that  he  will  come  to  life  where- 
ever  he  has  urinated.     People  give  up  trying  to  kill  him. 

5.  Coyote  meets  a  man  fishing;    asks  for  some  fish;    is  told  to  go 
upstream  and  build  fire;   returns  for  fish,  but  is  told  to  go  higher  up 
and  build  fire.     This  is  repeated  several  times.     Coyote  gets  angry,  and 
jumps  at  the  man,  who  turns,  and  Coyote  lands  on  bag  of  fish-hooks 
that  catch  his  feet.     He  tears  himself  loose  and  runs  away. 

6.  Coyote   marries    Deer.      She    grows    lazy    and    makes    Coyote 
fetch  water.     He  gets  angry,  and  throws  his  wife  out  of  smoke-hole. 
She  returns  to  her  father,  but  her  robe  is  caught  on  smoke-hole. 
Coyote  calls  to  her;   gets  no  reply;   gives  robe  a  pull,  thinking  to  pull 
wife  into  fire;    falls  over  himself  into  fire,  and  is  burned. 

7.  Coyote   transforms    himself    into    a    woman,    and   asks    many 
women  to  a  feast  at  his  house.     While  all  are  asleep,  Coyote  returns 
to  his  regular  form,  cohabits  with  the  women,  and  runs  away.     The 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths. 


women  wake  in  the  morning  to  find  house  has  disappeared,  and  that 
all  have  children. 

8.  Coyote  hears  a  woman  singing,  and  follows  the  sound;    spends 
night  in  hollow  tree,  which  closes.     Woodpecker  makes  small  hole, 
but  is  scared  away  by  Coyote,  who  cannot  keep  still;    asks  advice  of 
his  excrement,  and  is  told  as  usual.     He  follows  advice,  and  turns 
himself  into  a  fog,  thus  passing  out  of  the  small  hole;  follows  the  song 
he  hears,  and  finds  woman  at  last  on  an  island  in  the  Sacramento 
Valley.     He  cannot  reach  her,  so  comes  home. 

9.  Coyote  asks  Humming-Birds  how  he  may  be   able   to   fly   as 
they  do.     By  their  advice  he  climbs  tree,  and  jumps  off,  but  is  dashed 
to  pieces  before  he  can  say  the  necessary  charm.     Crows  begin  to 
eat  his  eyes,  and  he  comes  to.     He  eats  crickets,  but  they  escape 
through  a  rent  in  his  body,  which  has  completely  dried  up. 

10.  Animals  go  in  search  of  fire,  and  run  off  with  it.     Coyote  gets 
chance  to  carry  it,  although  he  has  been  sent  away  to  be  out  of  mis 
chief.     He  drops  it,  and  a  general  conflagration  ensues.     Coyote  asks 
rocks,  lakes,  and  trees  for  aid,  but  all  either  burn  or  grow  hot.     He 
cannot  wait  longer,  so  crawls  into  hollow  tree,  and  is  burned  up. 

11.  Coyote  makes  fun  of  his  sister-in-law,  Bear.     She  gets  angry, 
and  bites  him.     He  cannot  be  killed  as  long  as  the  little  finger  of  his 
right  hand  is  intact.     When  Bear  begins  to  bite  that,  Coyote  kills 
her;     tells  his  wife  that   Bear  died  naturally.     At  the   "burning" 
Coyote  gets  into  a  quarrel  with  the  Bears,  and  is  killed. 

12.  Coyote  wants  to  be  as  black  as  Blackbirds.      The  latter  tell 
him  he  can  become  so  by  getting  into  a  hole  where  hot  fire  has  been 
kept.     He  does  so,  they  cover  him  up,  and  he  is  roasted  to  death. 

13.  Coyote  desires  a  fine  shell  like  Turtle's.      He  is  told  to  fall 
from  a  high  tree  on  to  flint  arrow-points  set  up  in  the  ground  beneath. 
He  does  so,  and  is  killed. 

14.  Coyote  tries  to  imitate  a  leaf  floating  in  air.     He  climbs  high 
tree,  jumps  off,  and  is  killed. 

15.  Coyote   sees    Frogs   diving;    tries  to  imitate  them,  strikes  his 
head  on  a  stone  under  water,  and  is  killed. 

1  6.  Coyote  arranges  a  race  to  determine  where  the  different  people 
shall  live.  The  winners  are  to  have  the  valleys,  the  vanquished  must 
take  the  hills.  After  the  race  all  people  are  to  be  animals.  Jack- 
Rabbit  wins,  and  therefore  lives  in  the  valleys,  while  all  the  other 
animals  live  in  the  hills. 

ii.  Fish-Hawk  and  the  two  Deer-Ticks. 

Two  Deer-Ticks  live  with  their  brother,  Fish-Hawk.  He  gives 
them  only  the  poorest  food,  and  finally  none  at  all.  The  Deer-Ticks 
decide  to  try  to  help  themselves.  They  get  a  piece  of  flint;  watch  a 


I  1 6    Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII, 

deer-trail,  and  persuade  a  deer  to  carry  them  with  him  on  his  neck. 
They  then  cut  the  deer's  throat  and  kill  it.  Fish-Hawk's  wife  helps 
them  carry  meat  home,  and  feeds  them  with  it  secretly.  Fish- 
Hawk  discovers  this,  and  snatches  away  the  last  morsel.  He  then 
becomes  Fish-Hawk,  and  the  two  brothers  become  Deer-Ticks. 

12.  The  To'lowim  Woman  and  the  Butterfly-Man. 

A  woman  goes  out  with  her  child  to  gather  food;  sees  a  butterfly, 
and  chases  it;  leaves  child  behind,  and  forgets  about  it;  chases 
Butterfly-Man,  who  marries  her.  They  pass  through  valley  in  which 
are  many  other  Butterfly-Men,  and  woman  lets  go  her  husband  and 
tries  to  catch  another.  She  fails,  and  goes  crazy.  She  dies  in  the 
valley  without  being  able  to  get  out. 

ij.  Mountain-Lion,  Robin,  and  Frog-Woman. 

Mountain-Lion  marries  Robin.  They  separate,  and  each  goes  home 
alone.  Robin  is  swallowed  by  Frog,  who  takes  Robin's  child  and 
goes  to  Lion's  home.  Latter  suspects  that  all  is  not  right;  refuses  to 
have  anything  to  do  with  his  wife;  sets  her  to  roasting  grain  over  hot 
fire,  till  she  is  killed;  cuts  her  open  and  finds  Robin  inside;  restores 
her  to  life  by  placing  her  in  lake  over  night. 

14.  The  Cannibal-Head. 

Man  dreams  he  ate  himself  up;  goes  out  to  pick  pine-nuts.  Son 
throws  one  down  and  wounds  man.  He  licks  off  blood,  likes  the 
taste,  and  eats  himself  all  but  head  and  shoulders.  He  then  goes 
bo^cing  about,  trying  to  kill  people.  He  finally  bounces  into  the 
river,  and  is  not  seen  any  more. 

15.  The  Stolen  Brother. 

One  of  two  brothers  is  stolen  by  a  great  bird.  The  other  brother 
learns  from  the  Moon  where  the  missing  one  is.  With  help  of  Lark, 
Eagle,  and  Bald-Eagle,  he  goes  to  the  place  where  his  brother  is. 
Lark  kills  the  abductor,  and  the  two  eagles  bring  back  the  two  brothers. 

1 6.  Lizard  and  Grisly-Bear. 

Grisly-Bear  had  killed  all  people  but  Lizard  and  his  grandmother. 
Lizard  sees  Bear  dancing  in  the  valley,  and  calls  him  names.  Bear 


1902.]  Dixon,  Maidu  Myths.  117 

hears,  and  hunts  for  Lizard;  finds  him  finally,  and  tells  him  he  will 
have  to  be  killed.  Lizard,  however,  jumps  down  Bear's  throat  with 
out  being  harmed,  and  cuts  him  to  pieces  inside  with  a  flint  which 
he  had  concealed. 

17.  Skunk  and  Beetle. 

Skunk  and  Beetle  go  to  get  reeds  for  arrows.  They  are  attacked 
by  enemies.  Beetle  exhausts  his  supply  of  bad  odor  by  shooting  at 
them.  Skunk  then  shoots  and  kills  all. 


i8.  Wolf  makes  the  Snow  Cold. 

Wolf  and  his  grandchildren  live  in  large  house.  The  children 
disturb  him  by  playing  and  shouting  in  the  snow.  He  goes  outside, 
and  urinates  on  the  snow,  which  is  thus  made  cold.  The  children  then 
get  their  hands  and  feet  cold,  and  do  not  play  and  shout  as  before. 

i p.  Thunder  and  his  Daughter. 

Thunder's  daughter  wants  to  marry  Flute-Player.  Thunder  for 
bids  her.  She  goes  to  meet  Flute-  Player,  however.  Thunder  gets 
angry,  but  in  contest  of  power  is  overcome  by  his  daughter.  She 
kills  him,  and  marries  Flute-Player. 

20.  Huptoli. 

A  one-legged  being  was  once  found  in  the  river.  Carried  up  to  the 
top  of  the  hill,  he  jumps  back  to  the  river  in  one  jump,  and  is  not 
seen  again.  All  the  people  fall  into  deep  sleep,  and  are 
only  by  the  shaman. 

21.  Big-Belly's  Son. 

Big-Belly  and  wife  are  killed  by  enemy,  who  surprise  them.  Son 
comes  home  from  hunt,  and  finds  parents  dead;  cuts  out  girl  from 
body  of  mother,  and  takes  it  off  with  him  to  mountains;  feeds  it  on 
pounded  meat,  and  it  grows  rapidly;  finds  Frog- Woman  at  his  house 
one  day  on  returning  from  hunt.  She  scalps  him  in  night,  and  runs 
away.  He  collects  wood  and  builds  a  great  fire;  leaves  food  with 
baby-sister,  and  tells  her  to  burn  herself  if  life-token  he  leaves  with 
her  should  fall.  He  goes  off  to  the  country  of  the  Frog- Woman  to 
get  back  his  scalp;  makes  himself  look  like  a  woman;  finds  the  place 


I  1 8    Bulletin  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  [Vol.  XVII. 

where  the  people  are  dancing  about  his  scalp.  At  night  he  steals 
it,  and  returns  home;  finds  his  sister  alive.  To  see  whether  she 
would  have  carried  out  his  orders,  he  tells  the  life-token  to  fall.  It 
does  so,  and  the  child  prepares  to  burn  herself.  Brother  stops  her  in 
time.  They  live  together  as  before. 

22.  Mountain-Lion  and  his  Wives. 

Mountain- Lion  marries  two  women,  and  has  a  child  by  each. 
Deserts  them  for  two  other  women.  Children  and  mothers  nearly 
starve.  Mothers  make  flutes  for  children,  and  also  bows  and  arrows. 
The  children  learn  to  kill  deer,  and  play  on  the  flute.  They  gradually 
become  expert  at  both.  Their  father  begins  to  get  interested  in  them, 
watches  them.  Finally  he  returns  to  his  first  wives,  and  he  and  the 
children  go  hunting  together. 


{Continued  from  ^th  page  of  cover.) 

Vol.  III.  Anthropology  (not  yet  completed). 

PART  I. — Symbolism  of  the  Huichol  Indians.     By  Carl  Lumholtz.     Pp.  1-228, 
pll.  i-iv,  and  291  text  figures.     May,  1900.      Price,  $5.00. 

Vol.  IV.  Anthropology  (not  yet  completed). 

Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition^ 

PART  I. — Traditions  of  the  Chilcotin  Indians.     By  Livingston  Farrand.     Pp. 

1-54.     June,  1900.     Price,  $1.50. 
PART  II. — Cairns  of  British  Columbia  and  Washington.     By  Harlan  I.  Smith 

and  Gerard  Fowke.     Pp.   55~75,   pll.   i-v,   and  9  text  figures.      January, 

1901.     Price,  $1.50. 
PART  III. — Traditions  of  the  Quinault  Indians.     By  Livingston  Farrand  and 

W.  S.  Kahnweiler. 

Vol.  V.  Anthropology  (not  yet  completed). 

Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition. 
PART  I. — Kwakiutl  Texts.     By  Franz  Boas  and  George  Hunt. 

Vol.  VI.  Anthropology. 

Hyde  Expedition. 
The  Night  Chant,  a  Navaho  Ceremony.     By  Washington  Matthews. 

Vol.  VII.  Anthropology  (not  yet  completed). 

Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition. 

PART  I.- — The  Decorative  Art  of  the  Amur  Tribes.     By   Berthojd   Laufer. 
Pp.  1-79,  pll.  i-xxxiii,  and  24  text  figures.     December,  1901.     Price,  $3.00. 

ETHNOGRAPHICAL   ALBUM. 

Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition. 

Ethnographical  Album  of  the  North  Pacific  Coasts  of  America  and  Asia.     Part 
I,  pp.  1-5,  pll.  1-28.     August,  1900.     Sold  by  subscription,  price  $6.00. 

BULLETIN. 

The  matter  in  the  '  Bulletin  '  consists  of  about  twenty- four  articles  per 
volume,  which  relate  about  equally  to  Geology,  Palaeontology,  Mammalogy, 
Ornithology,  Entomology,  and  (in  the  recent  volumes)  Anthropology,  except 
Vol.  XI,  which  is  restricted  to  a  '  Catalogue  of  the  Types  and  Figured  Speci 
mens  in  the  Palseontological  Collection  of  the  Geological  Department.' 


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For  sale  by  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS,  New  York  and  London  ; 

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PUBLICATIONS 

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American  Museum  of  Natural  History* 

The  publications  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  consist  of 

the  '  Bulletin,'  in  octavo,  of  which  one  volume,  consisting  of  about  400  pages, 

and  about  25  plates,  with  numerous  text  figures,  is  published  annually ;  and 

the  '  Memoirs,'  in  quarto,  published  in  parts  at  irregular  intervals.      Also  an 

'Ethnographical    Album,'    issued    in    parts,     and    the    'American     Museum 

Journal.' 

MEMOIRS. 
Each  Part  of  the  '  Memoirs'  forms  a  separate  and  complete  monograph, 

with  numerous  plates. 

Vol.  I  (not  yet  completed). 

PART  I. — Republication  of  Descriptions  of  Lower  Carboniferous  Crinoidea 
from  the  Hall  Collection  now  in  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  His 
tory,  with  Illustrations  of  the  Original  Type  Specimens  not  heretofore 
Figured.  By  R.  P.  Whitfield.  Pp.  1-37,  pll.  i-iii,  and  14  text  cuts. 
September  15,  1893.  Price,  $2.00. 

PART  II. — Republication  of  Descriptions  of  Fossils  from  the  Hall  Collection  in 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  from  the  report  of  Progress  for 
Geological  Survey  of  Wisconsin,  by  James  Hall,  with  Illus- 
the  Original  Type  Specimens  not  heretofore  Figured.     By 
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PART  III.— The  Extinct  Rhinoceroses.  By  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn.  Part  I. 
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PART  IV. — A  Complete  Mosasaur  Skeleton.  By  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn.  Pp. 
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PART  V.— A  Skeleton  of  Diplodocus.  By  Henry  Fairfield  Osborn.  Pp. 
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PART  VI. — Monograph  of  the  Sesiidze  of  America,  North  of  Mexico.  By  Wil 
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PART  VII. — Fossil  Mammals  of  the  Tertiary  of  Northeastern  Colorado.  By 
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vember,  1901.  Price,  $3.00. 

Vol.  II.  Anthropology. 

Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition. 

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PART  II. — The  Mythology  of  the  Bella  Coola  Indians.  By  Franz  Boas.  Pp. 
25-127,  pll.  vii-xii.  November,  1898.  Price,  $2.00. 

PART  III. — The  Archaeology  of  Lytton,  British  Columbia.  By  Harlan  I. 
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PART  IV. — The  Thompson  Indians  of  British  Columbia.  By  James  Teit. 
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April,  1900.  Price,  $5.00. 

PART  V.— Bisketry  Designs  of  the  Salish  Indians.  By  Livingston  Farrand. 
Pp.  393-399,  pll.  xxi-xxiii,  and  15  text  figures.  April,  1900.  Price,  75  cts. 

PART  VI. — Archaeology  of  the  Thompson  River  Region.     By  Harlan  I.  Smith. 
Pp.  401-442,  pll.  xxiv-xxvi,   and    51    text  figures.     (With  title-page,  con 
tents,  and  index  to  Vol.  II.)     June,  1900.     Price,  $2.00. 
(Continued  on  jd  page  of  cover.} 


